Again: Who runs Barnet Council? (And do they know what they're doing?)

Barnet bloggers wrote to Barnet Council leader Richard Cornelius recently asking "Who runs Barnet Council?"

This came after a senior Council officer sent an email to staff telling them the decision had been taken to turn the privatisation of Development and Regulatory Services (DRS) into a Joint Venture between Barnet Council and one of the outsourcing companies bidding for the contract.

Richard Cornelius, returning from holiday, said no such decision had been taken, this in spite of his deputy Daniel Thomas telling the newspapers such a move would make sense.

At the Budget and Performance Committee last night (which I didn't attend) the Tory group appeared to deny that a JV had ever been contemplated.

You can read about this in reports from bloggers who were there! For example, Reema Patel, Mr Reasonable and Barnet Unison.

So, again, who runs Barnet Council? And, more to the point, do any of them know what they are doing?