Below is the text of a press release issued by Barnet Liberal Democrats this morning, ahead of tonight extraordinary meeting of the council.
“Barnet Liberal Democrats will keep up the pressure on the Barnet Tory Administration at an extraordinary Council meeting this evening. The Extraordinary Meeting has been summoned at the request of Barnet Liberal Democrats. The meeting starts at 6.30pm.
Councillor Jack Cohen Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group says there still remains many unanswered question about the Councils behaviour in investing millions of pounds in Icelandic and other foreign banks.
Cllr Wayne Casey will be proposing the Lib Dem motion calling for an inquiry into the investment of £27.4Million by Barnet Council in Icelandic financial institutions. Cllr Casey will be speaking on “behalf of angry residents.” Cllr Casey will be demanding to know who made the decisions that led to this fiasco. Cllr Casey will challenge the Tory Leader to own up to responsibility for the decisions taken by his administration.
Cllr Monroe Palmer will be adding his weight to the debate by proposing an amendment warning that there is now a high risk that the Council will not get its money back and will call on the Council to now limit its investments to UK and EU banks.
Cllr Cohen last night quizzed the Leader of the Council, Mike Freer about his role in the investments in Iceland banks. Cllr Freer was appearing in front of Barnet’s Cabinet and Overview Scrutiny Committee. In response to Cllr Cohen’s question “ how many times in last two years have you met with officers to look at the Council’s investment portfolio “, Cllr Freer revealed he had never to his recollection had any meetings or indeed never seen a list of the Council’s investments . He admitted that the first time he knew any details of where the Council deposited money including the investments in Icelandic Banks was when the news about the Icelandic Banks broke a few weeks ago.
Cllr Cohen says he is astonished, “Cllr Freer is telling us that as leader of the Council he had no idea what was going on, either his recollection is faulty or he has lost control. The leader of the Council, a former Banker, who is paid a substantial responsibility allowance is now telling us that he never (as far as he can recollect ) been bothered to ask or check where Barnet’s £300 million pounds of its money is deposited. If this is true it my view that his position is untenable and he should resign”
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
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5 comments:
Its all very well and good for you to sit there, but how come none of you thought to call it in before now? I assume at least one Liberal Democrat Councillor sits on a scrutiny committee which could have questioned this action?
Or is it simply a quite bandwagon hopping opportunity?
Presumnably the £27.5 was resources. Mike Freer receives an "allowance" from the taxpayer to do his job of managing them.
As he never bothered to even check, what was he doing?
How can he justify claiming his allowance when he couldn't even be bothered to check where our £27.5 million had been stashed?
"Amanda" so you think it's ok if all of the Councillors are useless in this respect then?
If someone else held the Resources Cabinet portfolio and had given an answer like that, Mike Freer would have sacked them on the spot. And quite rightly too.
Mike Freer persuaded his other Councillor colleagues that he was a financial expert and he had firm control over the Council. He's now a busted flush and tonight he is fighting for his political life.
It seems that Amanda is Cllr Freer’s new poodle. Some councillors are more interested in political point scoring than telling the taxpayers what will happen if the money is lost for good. Cllr Daniel Thomas tried to be clever in pointing out that some LibDem councils have also lost money in Iceland. So what? The debate last night was about Barnet and if it hadn’t been for the LibDems councillors there wouldn’t have been a debate at all. Not one Conservative councillor had the guts to speak out on this important subject. It just goes to prove that the whipping system is damaging democratic accountability.
I am willing to bet that the Conservatives sitting on LibDem controlled councils which have also lost money have spoken out quite vociferously on this matter. Are they bandwagon jumpers too Amanda?
I think it's great that people such as Amanda who are "not political" and need council YouTube clips to help them put their bin out are suddenly taking such an interest in Council meetings and the role of councillors.
She is truly a special gal !!!!
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