A busy week ahead for functional body Brian Coleman

I have gained exclusive access to the desk diary of Brian Coleman AM FRSA BAKA for next week. Tiptoeing past his slumbering form, I was able to glance over his shoulder and read there the entries for next week. He has a busy schedule, I can tell you.

Monday 6 September: Barnet council Cabinet meeting. Well, in fact, I'm not sure that Cabinet meetings really are all that onerous for the members; all the decisions have already been made. Hillan's merry band troop in and wearily perform their pre-rehearsed lines for the assembled public and press. They like to wrap up business as early as possible, presumably so that they can go back to their dinner parties. That's one of the reasons - there are others - that they hate the 30 minutes allowed for public questions.

Unlike the public, who have had to wade through a 300+ page agenda to work out whether their public questions will be in order (ie, relate to business being heard at that particular Cabinet meeting), I can't imagine that any of the Cabinet members will actually know what they are voting on when they stick up their hands in unanimous agreement with the Leaderine. But they will do it anyway and probably accompany the act with fulsome praise for everything Hillan thinks, says and does. Even those of them who plan to stab her in the back the next night.

Tuesday 7 September: Barnet Tory group crisis summit. The Tory group will meet to decide whether to continue marching into oblivion, ignominy and national notoriety with Lynne Hillan at their helm, or whether to rally around a bloke no one knows from Adam who has some powerful friends in high places... somewhere...

At least Mark Shooter makes the right noises to the press and he has gained some supporters in the blogosphere. Vote Shooter, get fewer howling political blunders and unwanted media attention? A better bet, therefore, for shafting the residents and workforce of Barnet big time? It is for Barnet's Tory councillors to decide. The recalcitrant residents of Barnet will merely await the next Pope and see what s/he plans for us.

Wednesday 8 September: Functional Body Question Time at the GLA. This week's functional body is Brian Coleman, chair of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority. The questions that Coleman will face in the meeting are listed here, plus a great long list of questions requiring written answers. (Volunteers are sought to sharpen Brian's pencil.)

There is only a fleeting mention of the dispute that Coleman and the London Fire Brigade have engineered with London's firefighters. In brief, the LFB has threatened to sack all of London's firefighters before Christmas if their union doesn't agree to drastically changing their shift-pattern. The FBU is balloting its members on action short of strike as a first step to show their displeasure at being treated this way. You can read the FBU's very reasonable case here.

Thursday 9 September: Why, it's the weekend, isn't it?!

Bring back Question Time!

Not that annoying BBC1/Radio 4 programme, that's never gone away. But Barnet council public questions at Cabinet meetings. Since October 2009 we have been severely limited in what we can raise as topics at these meetings. We are confined to the Cabinet's own agenda, which is often highly technical and is lengthy - we simply don't have the time to read through and see whether our questions would be eligible.

Barnet council, since they changed the rules, have effectively ended Cabinet public questions as a means of residents holding the council to account.

But I have begun some investigations into how we might reverse the rule change to Bring Back Question Time! Watch this space...

Barnet council's new relationship with residents: don't ask us any questions

I thought this might happen. Until recently, Barnet residents were able to raise any matter of council business under public questions at a number of council meetings, including the Cabinet, the body that takes all the big decisions. Then the Cabinet got bored of answering our questions - why, as much as 30 minutes of their precious time had to be given over to this part of the agenda!

They changed the rules so that we could only ask questions on a topic that was being discussed at the meeting in question. Since the public had to give eight clear working days' notice of what we wanted to ask the Cabinet, it made it impossible to ask any questions at all, because the agenda for the Cabinet meeting is never available that early.

So they have now changed the deadline. We can ask questions on any topic discussed at the meeting, and must give two clear working days' notice of what we want to ask. You now have till 10am on Thursday 2 September to submit your questions for the 6 September Cabinet c/o Nick.Musgrove@barnet.gov.uk.

I have only just found out about the deadline change, so I and a number of other people have submitted questions to the Cabinet which we now find cannot be asked. I would love to have a list of those questions - if anyone wants to send me their question, I'll publish them here.

The upshot of it is this - unless it is on the agenda of the Cabinet meeting on 6 September, Barnet residents cannot ask questions about:

- Mr Meakins
- Future Shape/easyCouncil
- councillors' allowances
- Brent Cross
- sheltered housing wardens
- Connaught
- Catalyst
- academies and free schools
- Icelandic banks

Well, you can make your own list of pressing concerns in which Barnet residents have a vital interest. I'm about to look through the agenda of the Cabinet meeting on 6 September (594 pages) to see what we can ask questions about. Hm, what can we do with this little lot, and can I get paid for this?

Report of the Business Management Overview and Scrutiny Sub-Committee
5. Recycling and Waste Minimisation
Reports of the Cabinet Member for Housing, Planning & Regeneration (and of the Business Management Overview and Scrutiny Committee in respect of item 6a)
6. Local Development Framework – Core Strategy – Publication Stage
6a Comments of the Business Management Overview & Scrutiny Sub-Committee on the LDF Core Strategy
7. Local Development Framework – Development Management Policies
8. Local Development Scheme
Report of the Cabinet Member for Customer Access and Partnerships
9 Strategic Library Review
Reports of the Cabinet Member for Education, Children and Families
10. Barnet’s Corporate Parenting Strategy
11. Investment Strategy to meeting demand for Primary School Places
Report of the Leader of the Council
12. Audit Costs relating to the external investigation of the sale of land at Underhill
Report of Acting Democratic Services Officer
13. Referrals from Council
14. ANY OTHER ITEMS THAT THE CHAIRMAN DECIDES ARE URGENT