A PROMINENT Tory councillor last night voiced his discontent at being “hauled out” of a meeting to “bolster the numbers” at another and slated the scrutiny process at Barnet Council.

Councillor Mark Shooter had been due to sit on the pension fund committee to look at the latest figures for the Barnet council pension pot.

But at the last minute he was ordered to attend the business scrutiny meeting as the Conservative members were outnumbered four to three and faced losing a vote over plans to prepare the customer services department for outsourcing.

The committee was hastily convened after Labour leader Councillor Alison Moore called in the plans with questions on why the option of keeping it in-house scored so badly compared to sending it to a private company.

However, when told to keep his questions brief by chairman Councillor Hugh Rayner, Cllr Shooter said; “Have I got time to my questions after being hauled out of pensions to bolster the number here?”

During the meeting Councillor Robert Rams, who is in charge of customer services and Craig Cooper, the officer in charge, told councillors the reason in-house scored badly was because there was no money to invest in new technology.

Mr Cooper told the meeting they preferred the option of a private company who worked with a number of councils as they could provide “scales of economy” when investing in new technology.

When asked by Cllr Moore why no business case had been drawn up for the proposals, which could see the department put to tender in just over a year, He replied it would be done on an ongoing basis.

He also refuted claims the changes were to “prepare the service for the market” but said they were “in line with the council’s budget reductions”.

In the end Cllr Shooter voted with his party to tie the vote, saying he felt the project was “too far down the line” to be stopped by being sent back to cabinet.

At the same meeting the Hendon councillor said he had been “disappointed” with the scrutiny systems at the council, calling for a return to the committee system to give more councillors power.

He added during a debate about the future shape of scrutiny committees: “There’s no transparency and no power. We have 56 councillors sitting around doing nothing. It’s a waste of money.”

His views were echoed by Cllr Moore and Lib Dem leader Jack Cohen, who said there was “no power to challenge the executive” in the current system, as every committee is chaired by and has more Tory councillors sitting on it.

In the end the majority of members voted to send a slimmed-down version of the current system to a constitutional review committee to decide on.