Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
How much is the allowance to be Chair of Area Assembly? Go on have a guess...
(See also What your Councillors Cost You)
Go on have a guess...£500?, £1,000?, £5,000?
Give up?
Well, I was slightly flabbergasted to discover that the Area Assembly chair is paid £7,896.
(see page 2 of the linked document)
Don't get me wrong, I think councillors should get allowances for travel, telephones etc and (if we are to encourage more women to be councillors) child care. I'm not against the idea that those who take on greater responsibility should be 'topped' up provided it can be demonstrated that we get value for money.
However, over 7 grand to chair a meeting every three months? I presume that the chair is expected to do slightly more than keep the trouble makers quiet (not that I can find a job description anywhere) but, if there is slightly more to it than being stern I'd like to know what it is and whether Harringay is getting value for money.
Tags for Forum Posts: area assembly, area forum, councillors' pay
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by PeterPiper on
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...mmm, nice little earner. It surely begs the question, - the budget & cost for these cosy soirees?
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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This is what you would pay in the private sector. How do we attract talent to run these meetings if we pay peanuts?
They must take a fair bit of planning and preparation and organisation. I mean, TfL came to one, didn't they?
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Permalink Reply by Liz on
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Do you think it was the Chair who makes that happen, or the Neighbourhood Management team whose list of responsibilities include Area Assemblies?
In the private sector, value for money is of concern and a job description is forthcoming.
I wish to know what the job entails and whether there is accountability. I'm also unclear why other councillors in the ward without responsibility do not 'get a go'. Who decides who gets the job? Shouldn't that be the residents based on a clear description of what is expected? After all, we are footing the bill for all this
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Permalink Reply by Old-Age-Emporium(OAE) on
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And now that Mario no longer attends AAs, someone from Effingham Road gets over 7 Grand for a real doddle. Well, four doddles a year.
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Ha ha ha ha... yes, he had figured in my "that's not too much money" calculations.
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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I came across the Helping members to work effectively in localities report, from the Young Foundation this morning Liz, which may go some way to answering your questions. It's specifically about Haringey.
Amazing what Google gives you. You may also be interested in this report on the cabinet response to a review on neighbourhood management, dated November 2008. If you look at point 7, page 7, you'll see that a review of the role and operation of area assemblies was due in June 2009. I'm sure we've all been widely consulted................... I wonder if the remit spread wide enough to include the Green Lanes Strategy Group - the real local decision-making body for Harringay and St Ann's?
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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ACTION THIS DAY.
Hugh, I had a look at the link you provided (cabinet response, etc.) and was taken by Haringey's Action Plan. which I imagine has all the energy that most council action plans have. The most actionable aspect of the municipal action plan table, is the column entitled "Proposed Action".
Verbs are the 'doing' words and here are the verbs in the proposed action column; in each case, the main or only action to be taken:
Clarify
Align
Re-shape
Underpin
"Ongoing"
Ensure
Review
Clarify (again)
Approach
Inform – this last one could conceivably involve real action. On the other hand, in the last column under ("Timescale") the remark was "ongoing".
Is this an example of council constipation?!
There are municipal Action Plans and then there are governmental instructions like Churchill's; he would sometimes mark papers "Action this day!"
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Clive, you are so right.
I picked up on this same language in the Traffic action plan. Most of the same sort of 'delaying' action words and a complete failure to provide either timescales or success critieria.
They may have argued it was only an rough draft in which case when does the 'real' Action plan comes out? Perhaps something the Chair could get on to?
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May I suggest that one of you two contacts the Council and asks for a progress report on the action plan. You never know we may we nicely surprised. At the least we'll have the benefit of seeing the June report.
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I first came across a municipal action plan in the wake of the damning independent Walklate Reports about governance at Alexandra Palace.
It was not all bad, but it was formulated by the previous General Manager who is now no longer in Council employ. One of the themes was better communication. A bureaucratic action plan was the only response the council knew to a total indictment of governance at our failing Charity, mismanaged for 29 years on our behalves by the local council. The council is not yet ready to grasp the nettle of the utterly failed model of governance at AP.
Political meddling and interference, largely caused by the majority group ensuring that the Trust Board is a political instrument, has led to great waste and financial mismanagement and has meant that our Borough's greatest asset remains a wasted opportunity.
Municipal action plans can never be a substitute for leadership, but it does seem that, in effect, they are normally attempts to substitute for leadership.
A Council Action Plan is an oxymoron and they would more accurately be called inaction plans! Council officials are probably capable of exchanging action plans with each other indefinitely, but nothing will get done without leadership and direction.
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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Hugh, I can't remember seeing the first Report - from the Young Foundation. But if I did, there's little in it I would have taken seriously as applying to Haringey. It's full of well-meaning aspirations, but has little or no connection with how things actually work - or don't work here.
Which doesn't mean there aren't many hard-working, decent people who try to improve things. There are. That includes staff from the Council and other agencies, the voluntary sector, local residents, and some councillors. (I include my colleague Cllr Gina Adamou in that. And, as you know. I am stinting with my compliments.)
As you also know very well, making positive things happen - or preventing the opposite - involves far more than attending - or even chairing - formal meetings. A lot of these are in fact theatre. (Though perhaps the comparison is unfair on actors._
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