One Barnet the ‘Graph of Doom!’

Earlier this week an article appeared in the Guardian about Barnet Councils ‘Graph of Doom’ part of the article goes on to say

“Barnet, once dubbed “easyCouncil”, is known for its enthusiastic embrace of service outsourcing. But the Graph of Doom is quite separate. Irrespective of savings planned under the One Barnet transformation strategy, the slide demonstrates that demographic change – more children, more older people – is going to soak up every penny the authority has.”

Later it adds

“The graph should not be taken too literally: by making no provision for Barnet's anticipated rise in income through regeneration schemes, for instance, it overstates the bleakness of the outlook.”

Council workers may remember this Barnet Council youtube video published just before consultation on the Council Budget began. The video did paint a stark picture that the Council will ‘run out of money’ the video portrayed this scenario as inevitable and it is being used to justify the need to outsource council services. So there we have it, councillors and residents and staff are being bombarded with “we are all doomed message”

However a local Blogger Mr Reasonable (and he really is very reasonable), quickly spotted the flaws in this presentation, take a look at what he had to say back 1 October 2011 here