The Greatest hits of the Barnet Eye week - Day 2 - The Freedom pass scandal

 In day two of our series, I look at something that clearly shouldn't have happened. One of the things I'm proud about is that people trust me. People tell me things. Sometimes, I see something and I don't know what to say about it. I don't know what to do. On April 4th 2016, I got a message from a young man I know quite well. I consider him a friend. I've not read this blog since it was posted and it is just as shocking today. The young man lives with autism, he had worked at my business as part our work experience programme and he felt I was someone he could trust.

The message he sent me told of how he'd been trying to get the tube and found that his Freedom Pass had been cancelled. This was a stressful situation, he had no idea what was going on. When I received his message, I made some enquiries and checked that he was happy with me publishing it. Please read this, it is the full, unedited transcript of his message. So what had happened? Barnet Council had illegally cancelled hundreds of vulnerable people's Freedom Passes and not all had been told. A fellow blogger saw a similar thing happen on a bus. They did not realise what was going on until they read my blog. I had made enquiries and it immediately became clear what had happened. I then received another email, from a mum who was the parent of friend of one of my kids, who again was vulnerable and had suffered a similar humiliating experience. 

After discussions with my young friend and his mum, we agreed that he'd go public and share his story in a Youtube video. Within hours, hundreds of people had watched his video. It was a brave thing to do and I was reticent about publishing it, but it was his idea and he insisted. It is worth watching to understand just how a stroke of a pen at a Council meeting can have such awful consequences. 

The local and national press got involved and by May 15th, Barnet Council had apologised and reinsatted the Freedom passes for all involved. I proudly posted this blog celebrating. 

There is a little subtext that I've not revealed before. A few days later I was at a Council meeting and I collared one of the Tory Councillors responsible for the fiasco. I said that I was pleased that they'd acknowledged their mistake and reinstated the passes. His response shocked me, I was speechless for a few seconds. He said "I can't stand your holier than thou pontificating, everyone knows you only publish these stories to further your own political career". I was stunned. Not least because at the time I didn't belong to a Political party at the time and had no interest in standing. His comment was pretty much the inspiration to rejoin the Lib Dems and stand again in Mill Hill, but at the time it was the last thing on my mind. I was infuriated by the comment, I replied "You do realise that the young man who exposed this is a friend and did work experience and the girl who I featured was at school with my daughter. Please don't judge me by your own standards". That was met with "We all know what this is really about".  I'd expected a bit of contrition, but there was no such thing.  I have to be fair to the Barnet Tories, then Leader Richard Cornelius caught up with me and said "We got that wrong and we are sorry" and former leader Brian Salinger said to me that he was horrified by the situation and it would never have happened on his watch, but there genuinely were members of the administration who were totally unrepentent. Sadly they are in abundance in the current regime running the council.

The final blog in that series was rather full of pathos. It  was a sort of sad postcript, where the young man who started the story came to say thanks for getting it sorted. 

As with the Friern Barnet story, I'm incredibly proud of the role this blog played in getting this sorted out. We broke the story and we made sure it had legs. Other local people, bloggers and the press made it impossible for the council to maintain it's inhuman stance. I am proud that people trust me. I am proud that I've helped a few people. I had a small tear in my eye as I put this together, I sometimes wonder why people trust me and why I have to do these stories. Surely, with 63 Councillors, getting paid a minimum of £10K a year, I shouldn't need to do this as the adminstration councillors should not pass such rules and the opposition should properly scrutinise these changes. But it is left to me, a dyslexic punk rock guitarist to do this. Something is not right, is it?

Transport services proposals agreed by Cabinet Resources Committee (Barnet Council email)

This letter was sent to carers strategy board members by Barnet Council.

From the link within the email, it appears that over half of the people who responded to the survey believe these changes will have a negative impact on people living with disabilities. That really says it all.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Prince, Louanna
Sent: 13 November 2012 14:27
To: Prince, Louanna
Subject: Transport services proposals agreed by Cabinet Resources Committee

Sent on behalf of Dawn Rowe

To Carers Strategy Partnership Board Members

Dear Members,

Thank you for taking part earlier this year in the consultation on the council’s proposals to modernise transport services. We acknowledge that there was a diversity of opinion about some of these proposals, and we are grateful to all those who took the time to share their views.

We are writing to inform you that these proposals and the report on the findings from the consultation have now been considered by Barnet Council’s Cabinet Resources Committee, and the proposals have been agreed.

The changes agreed by the committee on 7 November are intended to make sure money is spent in the fairest way possible and to make it simpler for people to get the right support for their needs.

The committee agreed in principle to the following five proposals:

• To make changes to the council’s policy on eligibility for transport services from April next year to make sure those most in need receive the support they require.

• To provide independent travel training to support those who are able, to safely use public transport.

• That from January 2013, a £10 charge be introduced for Blue Badge applications. Blue Badges are renewed once every three years making the charge equivalent to just over six pence a week. It currently costs the council around £20 to process each application. No fee will be payable for an unsuccessful application.

• To change who can have and use designated disabled parking bays to make sure that those who have successfully applied for a bay outside their home get to use it.

• To withdraw the council’s Travel Voucher Scheme from April next year in favour of the similar, and more widely used, Taxicard scheme already being run by London Councils. The schemes are designed to provide support to residents unable to use public transport by helping cover the cost of taxi journeys. Currently the council’s Travel Voucher Scheme is only used by 351 residents in comparison to almost 4,000 people in Barnet using the Taxicard scheme. The council will assist residents in applying for the Taxicard scheme.

Full details of the findings from the consultation and the report which went to the Cabinet Resources Committee can be found on the council’s website.

The next step will be for an implementation plan to be put together for introducing these changes. Anyone who is directly affected by these proposals will be informed directly.  

If you have any questions, please email adultsocialcare@barnet.gov.uk.  

Best wishes,

Dawn

Dawn Rowe

Communications Manager

Adult Social Care and Health

London Borough of Barnet, North London Business Park , Oakleigh Road South , London N11 1NP

Tel: 020 8359 ****

Mobile: 07748 ******

Fax: 0870 889 ******

Barnet Online: www.barnet.gov.uk

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P please consider the environment - do you really need to print this email?

I get by with a little help from my friends

Rog T teaching Aaron Silver to play the guitar

What would you do if I sang out of tune, would you stand up and walk out on me?

So starts the Beatles song, I get by with a little help from my friends. One of my friends posted this picture of me on facebook, teaching a dear friend of mine, who passed away recently the guitar. We were rehearsing a number for a show. With my awful singing voice, I can pretty much guarantee that I sung out of tune, but all my friends stayed.

It reminded me of the comment Councillor Brian Coleman made last year, in an open council meeting, when he queried why the council should have to pick up the tab for "these people" in response to the cost of providing transport for the disabled. Bad enough. to say, but when you consider that Brian Coleman had over £3,000 worth of travel expenses paid by the public purse in the last year, it is simply appalling (check this - http://www.london-fire.gov.uk/Brian_Coleman_2011_2012.asp).

A couple of times in my life I've had pretty serious medical conditions. I nearly died in 1984 when I had a stomach bleed. I was in hospital for six weeks and I was pretty much as low as it was possible to get. Fortunately for me my parents visited every day, my friends visited every day and I came to realise that people were on my side. The constant stream of books, magazines, fruit & vegetables they brought (it is a tradition amongst my circle of friends that we always bring an aubergene for mates who are sick), raised my spirits. As Lennon & McCartney wrote "I'll get by with a little help from my friends".

Which brings us back to Colemans attack. I ask myself "What should we do in the face of such an attack on the rights of our friends and family?". Well this May affords us that opportunity. Brian Coleman is up for re-election to the GLA. Along with his £53,000 salary, he gets his travel expense account to dinners all around Country. He also gets £26,000 a year for the bolt on job of chair of the London Fire and Emergency services authority.

If you think that he is doing a marvellous job and think he's well worth the £79,000  + expenses he gets for these two part time jobbies, then he's your man. If like me, you think that someone who has no regard and consideration for the disabled and the infirm and is prepared to insult them in  a Council meeting, is totally inappropriate, then make sure you get out and vote for someone else. The person most likely to beat Coleman in the GLA seat of Barnet and Camden is Labour candidate Andrew Dismore. There is also a fine Lib Dem Candidate who is a very decent guy called Chris Richards. This may be an alternative for people who support the coalition and don't want to vote for Coleman. The Green candidate is A.M. Poppy who is an active local campaigner and again a very decent candidate. For those Tory voters who want a distinctively right of centre alternative we have Michael Corby for UKIP. I must confess I know nothing of Corby, but I can state categorically that Andrew Dismore, Chris Richards and A.M. Poppy are candidates who would never dream of attacking the mobility rights of the disabled.

Not all of my friends who are disabled or infirm can stand up bullies like Brian Coleman. Not all are eloquent or confident enough to put him in his place (although some most certainly are). For those that can't, it falls on us, their friends to defend their rights and stand up for them. In a democracy, the best way to stand up to a bullying politician is via the ballot box. Just to dispel one myth, which Coleman and crew are peddling to loyal Conservative voters. At the election you get three ballot papers. One for the Mayor, One for Coleman and one for the Party list candidates. If you want a Tory mayor and Tory representation, vote Conservative for Mayor and for the list. If you don't vote for Brian Coleman as GLA rep it will have no effect on Boris or the lists candidate. I believe it is vital for the local Conservative Party to turn over a fresh page and let the decent Conservatives get their say.

When I started writing this blog, I tended to view all of our local Conservative Councillors in the same light. This is a highly simplistic view and it is wrong. Of all of the councillors in Barnet, the very best, kindest and most decent is a Conservative called Kate Salinger. She will be the next Deputy Mayor. If she stood in Mill Hill, I would break the rule of a lifetime and vote for her, because I believe that decency in politics is something which is the first consideration. She has courage and principles and is prepared to make sacrifices for them. Kate was the only Conservative to not vote for huge increases in Councillor allowances. She got publicly humiliated for her trouble by the rest of the group. She was the person who got the ban on residents using the toilet at Friern Library lifted during the occupation.

At the next Council election, if she stands, this blog will urge all voters to give her their vote, regardless of party loyalty, to send a message to the rest of her colleagues that good behaviour is recognised. I am asking all decent conservative voters in Barnet and Camden to do the same. Withhold your vote for Brian Coleman on the 3rd May. If you do, you will end up with a far better Conservative party, because the rejection of his values will send a message they cannot ignore.

Scandal Exposed - The abject failure of Barnet Homes

There are massive regeneration projects going on all over Barnet. One of the most important pieces of work in this program is (supposedly) to replace clapped out sub-standard accommodation blocks dating from the 1960's and 1970's with modern decent housing. Many of these blocks have become prohibitively expensive to maintain and tenants have to suffer virtually permanent problems with lifts and other items failing. Barnet Council responded to this by creating an Arms Length management Organisation (ALMO) called Barnet Homes to refurbish or replace this stock.

The ide a of the ALMO is that it is not bound by the red tape which affects councils and can move quickly to address issues. A recent council document has revealed the abject failure of this strategy. The Barnet Eye is calling for the Council to admit that the Barnet Homes ALMO experiment has failed, and to bring all council housing back in house. This will bring democratic control back into Council housing and end the policy of neglect for the people living in the worst estates on the Borough. The game has been given away in a DPR entitled - Regeneration estates essential lift works leaseholder charges -

Section 2.2 tells us that the worst estates were not included in the "wider Decent Homes programme". So let us assume that there is a parallel "Barnet Homes Crap Homes programme", for those estates most in need of regeneration. Here's what the report says.

Most properties on the priority regeneration housing estates were not included in the wider Decent Homes programme which was successfully completed by Barnet Homes in 2010. This is because these homes are due to be demolished and replaced with new homes over the next 2 to 15 years. However, the Council has a duty to ensure that homes are maintained to a reasonable standard whilst they are still occupied and awaiting demolition.

Section 8.1 explains further :-

The Council has developed plans to demolish the four largest council housing estates- West Hendon, Grahame Park. Stonegrove/Spur Road and Dollis Valley- and replace them with new homes as part of its regeneration plans.

And then it gives the residents of the "Crap Homes programme" the bad news in section 8.2.

There has been some slippage in the regeneration programme and it is expected that many of the properties will remain occupied for a number of years. The Council has a duty to keep these properties in a habitable condition for as long as they remain occupied.

In section 8.4 they let the horrendous state of these blocks completely out of the bag. Barnet Homes has been in existence since 2004 and yet it has taken 8 years to start to address "management systems which are unable to report emergency alarms". This to me is truly shocking.

The existing lift units have outlasted their useful life. The units have become unreliable and have a tendency to breakdown. This is because of material fatigue, increased mechanical failure of the moving parts and systems failure due to old legacy control and management systems which are unable to report emergency alarms.

Perhaps the most shocking statement in the whole report is in section 4.1, the revelation that the tenants of these blocks have a "Higher proportion of Households with disabilities". Is this how Barnet Council and Barnet Homes look after the most vulnerable people in their care? Put them in clapped out buildings, with lifts that are prone to breakdown, with no management systems in place to rescue them when they get stuck? The answer is clearly yes, because it says so in the Council's own report, in black and white.

Demographic analysis has shown that a higher proportion of households on the regeneration estates are from Black and Minority Ethnic household than for the council housing stock as a whole. In addition, more households are families with children and there are higher proportions of households with disabilities.

Is there anyone in the Borough, who can disagree that this is a scandal? Is there anyone who can argue that we are failing our most vulnerable neighbours? I cannot hide my disgust at this whole issue and I call for the resignation of Tracey Leese and her management team and the immediate abolition of Barnet Homes. I suspect the only part of the "Arms Length" strategy that has worked for Barnet Council is to keep the most vulnerable people in the Borough at "Arms Length" from the Councillors who are meant to represent them.

Here is the full, shocking report.
DPR-6 - Lift Maintenance