Wednesday 14 October 2009

Court shock for Lynne Hillan


The Barnet Times reports that the council is facing a costly and embarrassing court battle over on-site warden cuts after permission was granted for a Judicial Review.

Although it has been left to Mike Freer and, more recently, Richard Cornelius, to publicly defend the proposed changes, regular readers will recall that it was Lynne Hillan who decided to instigate these savage cuts when she was Cabinet Member for Community Services.



The news could not have come at a worse time for Cllr Hillan as she prepares to finally fulfil her ambition to take over the leadership of the council from Mike Freer, who sources claim is stepping down next month to concentrate on his General Election campaign.

However, senior Conservatives are privately expressing their concern that a deal has been struck for Lynne Hillan to be anointed leader without a contest just like Gordon Brown was - and most probably with the same consequences.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

My sources tell me that she is already, in effect, Leader. Mike has stepped right back allowing her to fill the gap. She meets with Nick Walkley weekly and he has been told to call her first by Cllr Freer, so the rumour goes.

No one in the Conservative Group has the cohones to take her on. They have seen what happened to Brian Salinger and Chris Harris: who wants to throw away their cushy Cabinet job for that punishment.

I've got a bet on, at good odds, that she'll become Leader and br forced to resign under the cloud of scandal before the end of the year. That would be a disaster for the Conservative Party but it seems all but unavoidable.

The only one who could stop her is Brian Coleman but, he, alas is scared of her too.

Dean said...

if we live and work in a democratic local government and indeed a democratic country, how can anyone become leader, without any election taken place? the people supposedly elected this bunch to lead them, so why can't they elect their own leader, it is for the public afterall. isn't it??

we have seen what has happened on the back, and front, benches with labour since the take over of gordon brown, and surely this will end in the same way. a complete lack of support from her own party, is it really all worth it?

is it legally allowed?? are we allowed to have someone representing us who has not been elected leader? this is like robert mugabe, failed to be elected but is still the leader.

or, as we have done with zimbabwe will we have to grin and bare it with the cheating, snide, tories?

are we a (to coin a phrase) "TRANSPARENT" council, isn't this what we are striving towards, as the great leader himself has said?

Don't Call Me Dave said...

Dean

Sadly there is nothing unlawful in the leader being anointed rather than elected. The only solution is to have a directly elected Mayor although, thanks to Cllr Melvin Cohen’s Constitutional Review Committee, Barnet Council has just given away even more of its power to unelected officers, so frankly there is little point in even bothering to elect councillors any more.