I have sent two emails to the Leader of Barnet Council, Lynne Hillan regarding Metpro Rapid Response and their use of CCTV cameras to record activities & members of the public at the Town Hall. I've received no reply at all. Not only is this extremely bad mannered, it is also a sign of sheer panic at the Town Hall. Fellow Blogger Mrs Angry has had a similar experience. Here is the two emails I've sent. I will be sending a third email in the next few days. I think Barnet may find they will be legally obliged to respond to that one. They could always avert that situation and that cost to the taxpayer of Barnet by answering these quite reasonable requests.
Reproduced for you now is the original email and the chaser.
------------------------
Reproduced for you now is the original email and the chaser.
------------------------
I trust that Barnet Council are aware that they are governed by the same laws as the rest of us----- Original Message -----Sent: Tuesday, March 22, 2011 11:03 PMSubject: Re: Filming of Barnet Council Meetings
Dear Councillor HillanI do not seem to have received a reply regarding this email. I consider it to be the height of bad manners to ignore the genuine concerns of residents to matters of public interest. If you are not in the position to respond to my query, then I ask that one of the other people copied responds on your behalf.RegardsRoger Tichborne----- Original Message -----Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2011 1:00 AMSubject: Filming of Barnet Council Meetings
Dear Councillor Hillan,One of my regular blog readers was informed by the owner of the security company which Barnet Council employed to manage the last council meeting (metpro), that all his staff were wearing hidden CCTV cameras and had filmed the entire proceedings both inside and outside of the hall.Given that you had previously announced that no filming was permitted in the council chamber, please can you explain why you clearly had allowed your own rules to be breached.Please can you clarify how long security staff have been allowed to film at the council and how this is monitiored by Barnet Council in relation to the Data Protection act. Please can you forward me your privacy policy regarding this and also let me know when signs stating that the council chamber was under CCTV surveillance were fitted.I also would like to review all footage of the council meeting, as there have been allegations of inappropropriate behaviour made privately to me and I would like to see if these can be supported by the CCTV footage.
Regards
Roger Tichborne
As a matter of record, I've been investigating this issue both publicly and privately since the meeting. As soon as information reached me that this company was being wound up, I wrote to the CE, before publishing anything about it, as I considered that was the responsible thing to do. This was a mistake: I received no response whatsoever, and have continued to have no reponse to this and later enquiries. There is far more to this issue than has yet been put in the public domain, but for various reasons I'm not going to go into full details. In future, I will not extend the same courtesy to the CE or any politician. It's clear now that matters of public interest are something to be covered up in this borough, rather than investigated in an honest and open manner. Any administration which must resort to behaving in such a secretive and repressive way is shameful, third rate - and the author of its own failure.
ReplyDelete