Empowerment - But Not At Any Cost

摘要

Last autumn, after an investigation costing at least ￡1m, the auditor to Barnet LBC threw out a seven-year-old 'objection' to the borough's accounts. It had been raised by a handful of residents with bees in their bonnets about the sale of land by the council to Barnet Football Club - currently languishing in the lower reaches of the Coca-Cola championship league two. Of course, local residents should be able to complain, and pursue grievances. In a vibrant community there will be lots of local argy-bargy, and the more, the merrier. The point is that this mechanism isn't suited to this sort of problem. Objection to the accounts unleashes an avalanche of legal fees. A large chunk of the cost estimate above - a minimum figure, since it excludes the time of council officials - went on lawyers.