Barnet Council - The shameful ineptitude of our local Conservative Councillors

Yesterday I spoke to local Unison rep John Burgess.  John sent an email to all of our Councillors containing two reports detailing serious deficiencies within the One Barnet / Future Shape / BarnetTrack program. The union has paid for a team of experts to analyse the program and Highlight the deficiencies. The job of Councillors is to protect our rights and ensure Council officials do their job. These reports highlight problems which will cost ordinary Council Taxpayers a fortune. All that John Burgess asked of our councillors was that they read the reports and if they felt the criticisms were justified, took action to save the Council money. Surely even the most rabid Tory would agree that this is a sensible approach.

When John sent the report, he put a read receipt on the message. This meant that he could see how many Councillors had actually bothered to even open the email. What he told me sickened me regarding the number of local Conservative Councillors who had even bothered to open the email. Anyway, whilst many of these people, who couldn't be bothered to even open the email haven't read what he said - here's the covering letter. Ask yourself - does the approach taken sound reasonable? Would it save us money if all of the Councillors read it? These people are paid chunky allowances to represent us. Surely we should expect something for our money. Yesterday I wrote a blog detailing how the Leaders of Barnet Council ignored reasonable questions from me. Do they actually do anything? Here's the letter
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On Monday 28 March 2011 Barnet Council Cabinet Resources Committee are being asked to agree the business case to privatise Development & Regulatory Services (DRS) by handing them over to a large private sector  multinational company. The first group of council services to be given the ‘easyCouncil’ treatment are Cemeteries, planning, Highways, Land charges, Registrars, Environmental health, Building control, trading standards.

The contract could be worth up to £180 million to the successful private sector organisation.

Professor Dexter Whitfield, Adjunct Associate Professor, University of Adelaide, with over 35 years experience of planning, researching and analysing local authority policy documents in Britain and overseas) was commissioned by Barnet UNISON three years ago to provide consultancy support for the Easycouncil/Future Shape/One Barnet programme you can view his reports here.

Dexter Whitfield (European Services Strategy Unit said this about the DRS business case:

·         “The DRS Business Case has a superficial appearance of authenticity but is fundamentally not fit for purpose and elected members have a duty to decide it is non-compliant."

·          “There is clearly a high risk that user charges will be increased in order to achieve the income generation targets.”

Adrian Waite (Independent Consultancy Services) was commissioned by Barnet UNISON to examine the financial aspects of the business case. Adrian is a highly experienced and respected local government finance expert. He has held a number of senior roles in local authorities including Director of Finance and s151 Officer and is a fully qualified member of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy.

Adrian Waite said this about the DRS business case

“During the thirty years that I have worked in local government finance as a local government officer and management consultant, including some time as Finance Director of a Borough Council, I have seen and written many business cases, business plans and options appraisals. This business case is remarkable for the apparent lack of robust evidence to support its main conclusions that £28million of savings and increased income is achievable and that this can only be delivered through outsourcing.”

Barnet UNISON has submitted the two reports (see attached) to all Barnet councillors including the 6 members of Cabinet Resources Committee.

We are recommending the following:

1. The Council should recognise that significant additional work is required before the Business case can be approved.
2. The formal procurement process should not be commenced until Cabinet Resources Committee has approved a revised DRS Business Case.
3. The Council’s template and methodology for preparing Business Cases should be revised to ensure it is compliant with best practice.
4. Carry out an equality analysis under the Equality Act 2010 as part of a broader cost benefit analysis of the economic, sustainability and environmental impacts of the DRS proposals.
5. Gateway Reviews should be implemented in all major procurement processes as a matter of urgency.
6. The Council should immediately exclude Cemeteries and Crematoria from the scope of the procurement and return to the 2010 options appraisal findings.

Barnet Council : Hillan, Coleman and Future shape are rated as catastrophic risks

I kid you not. On Thursday 24th March, the Barnet Council audit committee meet to discuss the Corporate Risk management policy.  I was intrigued to know what constituted a Corporate risk. Item 8 on the agenda -
http://committeepapers.barnet.gov.uk/democracy/reports/reportdetail.asp?ReportID=10175 - explains how this works. Have a look at the numbers at the bottom of the page. On page 66 it explains what constitutes a political and a reputational risk. These are contained in this illustration (i've stuck the definition of catastrophic on the bottom of it).

So what have we had under the Hillan and Coleman regime. We had a leadership challenge caused by her poor judgement. I doubt that as a political risk anything could be greater than this. As the vote was split by a single vote, it is clear that "internal issues" prevented the Torys from working collaboratively. There have been a whole host of other political issues within the Tories which have shown them to be in catastrophic disarray. The Allowancegate scandal destroyed forever the notion that they were a political group interested in anything but lining there own pockets. The action to discipline Councillor Kate Salinger was highly divisive and the whole fiasco lead to Brian Coleman getting the sack as Tory chief whip.

Then there is the reputational damage. Hillan has become a national media laughing stock with her involvement in the OneBarnet/Future Shape/BarnetTrack scheme. When asked to explain the Easycouncil concept, she announced that developers could pay for their own planning officers, only to be informed this was illegal. Even more disasterous has been her refusal to take up Tory cabinet minister, Eric Pickles suggestion to allow open access to council meetings. Just today, Tory Councillor Danny "Imber" Seal made a none to veiled attack on Lynne Hillan in the Hendon Times. Following Hillans inept attempt to ban social media, he told the Times "We have some older members of the group who don’t understand social media and I want to educate them it’s a great way forward". The only elderly member who has come out against social media is Hillan.  It is clear that Imber and his colleagues questions have moved well away from corporate priorities.It is clear that when Tory councillors speak to the press, portraying their leader as "elderly" and out of touch it is catastrophic for the reputation of the Council. There can be no question that public confidence has been eroded. No one thinks Hillan is a credible leader of the Council, outside of the cabal of Tory cabinet members who owe their allowances to her.

Then there is Brian Coleman. He has been a catastrophy for years. He regularly makes the National Press, be it for his Taxi expenses, his visits to the Standards Committee or his outburst against the British Olympic team. He even went so far as to "out" former Tory Leader Edward Heath, waiting till he'd died and couldn't put his side of the story.

Now according to the Risk management strategy, "immediate action" must be taken to deal with such catastrophies. A number of corrective measures may be required. If I was a Barnet Tory Councillor, I'd be looking to replace Hillan as leader and send Coleman to the back benches (assuming he wouldn't willingly go to the Outer Hebrides).

Barnet Council - Future Shape Business case (or not)

Barnet Council have released the first stab at a Future Shape business case. To be brutally honest, it's quite laughable. They admit that they don't have "robust" data to base calculations on (albeit 48 pages into the analysis). It is clear from the figures and the wordings, that all savings are finger in the air guesses. Here are a few potted highlights.

You can read the whole sorry saga here :-
http://committeepapers.barnet.gov.uk/democracy/documents/getdoc_ext.asp?DocID=90846

Just a word to the wise. An accountant friend advises that where a document contains savings that are all multiples of 5% :-

a) They have been rounded up or down by up to 2.5%. On these type of projections, with no firm benchmarking data, most business models would allow a + or - 75% error of margin, which means in many cases there could be no real savings at all.

b) Without firm benchmarking data and with no relevant case studies to justify the claims, they are pure guesswork.

This document is meant to be a business case. I'd call the whole project a Basket case. I can't believe that there are no Tory Councillors who can't see this.

Is Mike Freer MP really a Trotskyite agent provocatuer?

Don't Call Me Dave once floated the idea that Mike Freer was some sort of left wing infiltrator, hell bent on giving the Barnet Tories a bad name. I thought the idea was bonkers, not least because I couldn't really believe that people such as Maureen Braun and Brian Coleman were likely to be fellow travellers and these are the people who supported his regime. I still think it's pretty unlikely, but just suppose Mike Freer MP was some sort of Trotskyite mole, who had beavered away for years with the sole intentention of destroying the image and reputation of Conservatives in Barnet. What might he do as Leader of Barnet Council to make people decide that Tories were beyond the pale. Here's a few completely outlandish suggestions as to what an entryist may do to destroy the reputation of the Conservatives locally. All totally ridiculous of course.

1) Give a loud, foul mouthed, greedy buffoon a string of jobs where he could wind up local residents and bring awful press coverage for the local Tories (maybe someone like Brian Coleman perhaps).

2) Decimate Council finances by running up huge debt (Barnet Council Debt in 2002 £38 million, Barnet Council debt today approx £250 million).

3) Borrow money, then invest it in dodgy schemes in Banks with well known health warnings (Barnet Council lost £27.4 million in Icelandic Banks, all manner of warnings from credit agencies were ignored over a period of years).

4) Champion hugely unpopular mega building schemes to import tens of thousands of residents into Barnet and overwhelm schools, hospitals, roads and public transport.

5) Make sure these plans included hugely controversial health risks such as waste incinerators.

6) Ensure that all competent people in your own party are driven out ( Highly respected education chief Fiona Bulmar left at the last election in disgust).

7) Ensure that when you move on, your successor is someone with a track record of being completely useless (Freer's successor Lynne Hillan ran a company which went bust in 2006)

8) Launch a bonkers scheme to completely reorganise every department in the council, ensure that there is no proper project control and pay the unions to engage the finest expert in Europe to oppose the scheme and pick holes in it (Council Auditors Grant Thornton declared Future Shape had no proper project management in place. Freer launched Future Shape and then gave the Unions a grant to employ Dexter Whitlock, Europes leading expert on the matter to oppose it).

9) Declare war on the elderly in Sheltered Housing, alienating many voters who have parents in such accomodation.

10) Ensure your deputy, who was responsible for losing £11 million on a Bridge redevelopment project is selected for the constituency next door, ensuring that the general air of uselessness is preserved across the Borough.

Have you ever seen the film The Producers, by Mel Brooks. Max Bealistock discovers by accident that the way to make a fortune on Broadway is to preside over a complete cock up. Given the huge salaries and allowances many councillors and officials get, this is of course another option.  So when we look at the perilous financial state in Barnet, we are left with three possible reasons why Councillor Lynne Hillan had to go to Eric Pickle with a begging bowl. They are :-

a) Mike Freer is a Trotskyite entryist who set up the whole scheme to destroy the Barnet Conservatives and allow an Uber Left cabal to take over.

b) Mike Freer, Lynne Hillan et all watched The Producers and thought "We can do that with Barnet finances

c) Mike Freer, Lynne Hillan and the rest of them are not really that clever. In fact they are completely incompetent and have mismanaged the Boroughs finances to bring us to the current crisis.

I know which option I'd put my money on, but it is an interesting concept isn't it. If you can think of a better explanation, please leave a comment.

Barnet Council Latest : Lynne Hillan admits Tories have bankrupted Barnet Council

We've published a letter from the Leader of Barnet Council, Lynne Hillan to Eric Pickles, the Local Authorities minister on the Future Shape website. This in effect states that Barnet Council is insolvent. Hillan states :-

We have received only £9.5m of capital grant for school places investment against our requirement of £51 million over the next three years. We have no option but to provide additional school places for our growing population and urgently need additional government support to enable us to meet our statuatory requirements

Lynne Hillan could not be anymore specific if she tried. The council has not got enough money to meet its legal requirements. There is a word for this "Insolvent". That is why Hillan has the begging bowl out. It is time for the Barnet Tories to come clean with the taxpayer and tell us the truth. We need an honest externally audited assessment of the mess. We need an action plan to resolve it, with a fresh team that has some level of financial competence. I have been told that Deputy Leader Andrew Harper and Barnet Party Boss Councillor John Marshall had a crisis meeting to discuss the contents of Hillans letter. I am told that they were unable to draw any positive conclusions from what was discussed. They must now tell us the truth.

How did we get here? Later in the letter she talks about the money lost in Iceland.

Let us quickly recap on a few Barnet Conservative financial atrocities, which have brought about this situation :-

£27.4 million lost in dodgy Icelandic Bank Investments (+ another £3 million in lost interest)
£11 million overspend on the badly managed Aerodrome Road Bridge project
£8 million (and rising) overspend on Catalyst outsourcing project

When the Tories took over the Council from Labour in 2002, borrowing was £38 million (and derided by the Tories as "a scandal"). It is now approaching £250 million according to the latest accounts. How have the Tories tried to cut this?

They have spent millions on consultants working on the future shape project, which has delivered no savings at all.

They have replaced thousands of perfectly good lamposts in the borough at huge cost.

Employed contractors to senior posts within the council (eg Deputy CEO) on salaries circa £15,000 a month.

They have spent tens of thousands of pounds on staff jollies, such as trips to Sandbanks hotel for awayday conferences.

They bought plasma screen tellies for senior staff (and installed a satellite TV receiver)

They spent £1.4 million on redundant Laptop computers, then put hundreds of them into storage (having taken out warranties).

Knowing that there was a huge deficit, they froze council tax last year, purely as an election bribe.

They hiked wages for senior council executives - the CEO salary has risen from £114,000 a year to £200,000 a YEAR (Excluding pensions & perks)

They rasied allowances for chairmen of committees (personally appointed by Lynne Hillan) by 57%

You can read the whole letter here -
http://barnetfutureshape.blogspot.com/2011/02/hillan-begs-eric-pickles-to-save-her.html

The bottom line is that in eight years, the Barnet Conservatives have destroyed the council finances and now have to go cap in hand to Pickles for a baleout.

You're going to reap just what you sow !

I was in Blackpool for the new year with friends celebrating the new year. One of the things I learned from having a job which involves spending a lot of time on the road was to view long car journeys as a great opportunity to listen to your favourite music. If you treat traffic hold ups as an opportunity to listen to more great tunes, it takes all the stress out of the journey. Sadly for us, there were no hold ups on the way back so the 130 CD's in the car were largely untouched. As ever I used the trip to Blackpool as an excuse to visit HMV and buy a few more. We picked up the new Steve Miller CD, a James Taylor compilation and an Echo and the Bunnymen compilation. On the journey back, the first leg of trip was played out to the soundtrack of Transformer by Lou Reed. This album contains possibly one of my favourite songs ever, Perfect Day. It is possibly the most beautiful song ever written and although there have been a few covers, Lou Reed's original easily tops them all. It has a powerful message, hidden in it. One which is relevant to all of us today.

Lou Reed
Transformer (1972)
Perfect Day

Just a perfect day,
Drink Sangria in the park,
And then later, when it gets dark,
We go home.
Just a perfect day,
Feed animals in the zoo
Then later, a movie, too,
And then home.

Oh it's such a perfect day,
I'm glad I spent it with you.
Oh such a perfect day,
You just keep me hanging on,
You just keep me hanging on.

Just a perfect day,
Problems all left alone,
Weekenders on our own.
It's such fun.
Just a perfect day,
You made me forget myself.
I thought I was someone else,
Someone good.

Oh it's such a perfect day,
I'm glad I spent it with you.
Oh such a perfect day,
You just keep me hanging on,
You just keep me hanging on.

You're going to reap just what you sow,
You're going to reap just what you sow,
You're going to reap just what you sow,
  You're going to reap just what you sow...

 As we hurtled through the post industrial North West, I contemplated the coda (the bit at the end for you non musico's) - "You're going to reap just what you sow". When Lou wrote those lyrics, towns like Bolton, Wigan, Burnley, etc were the industrial heartland of the UK, driving  the economy. A trip to the football stadium would cost about 20p or half a crown for kids. Pubs were mainly male dominated enclaves where a man asking for a pint of lager might draw a few comments.  It was also the centre of the Northern Soul scene. Young people who weren't into the pub scene would congregate at places such as Wigan Casino and dance the night away to the sounds of Motown and songs such as Tainted Love by Gloria Jones epitomising the sound. As to the drugs scene. In the North West, young people would fuel their dance frenzy with amphetamines and other uppers. Working class communities were staunchly Labour and staunchly trades unionist. A couple of years after Lou Reed wrote the song, the NUM brought down Ted Heaths Tory government, when he called an election to ask "who runs the country".


The NUM did for Ted Heath and his Tory government. Heath was replaced by an altogether different type of leader. Heath, for all his faults was an internationalist and a consensualist. He listed his greatest achievement as securing entry for the UK into the EU (or the common market as it was then known). Thatcher was the antithesis to Heaths form of Toryism. She coined the phrase "Wets" for the Heathites. She viewed the working class and the trades unions as enemies, to be crushed. Whatever you think of Thatcher, the truth is she succeeded in her aim of crushing Trades Union power in the UK. The pivotal moment was the miners strike. Other less obvious attacks on Trades Union power ensured that no union could ever again bring down a Tory government. An example is the privatisation of the Railways. Under BR, a single strike could virtually paralyse the country. The railway was broken into hundreds of seperate companies (none of which seem to talk to each other). A national rail strike is virtually impossible to arrange. At the time of the break up of BR, I happened to find myself sitting opposite Michael Portillo on a train to Scotland. I'd followed the plans carefully and took the opportunity to ask him whether he thought it could possibly work, as I thought it would be a night mare. He laughed. He explained that it wasn't about the railways, it was about making sure the unions couldn't disrupt the economy. He explained that ultimately this would be good for the railways and the workers, because they would stop losing contracts when the unions went on strike. He explained that Rupert Murdoch had stopped using rail to distribute newspapers during the last strike, and this was an example of the corrosive power of rail unions. I told him that far more days would be lost due to the private companies being unable to run a coherent service. He said "I doubt it, everyone knows private enterprise is far more efficient and well organised". I have three words for Mr Portillo "First Capital Connect".


So how did Margaret Thatchers rule change the North West? Well it's certainly fair to say pubs are no longer male bastions, full of bitter bitter drinkers. The industrial complexes are either rusting wrecks, shopping centres or new homes. Football matches are £20 to get into and for your money you can watch a bunch of foreign players, wearing snoods, rolling around on the floor pretending to be injured when they get a pat on the head. Northern Soul is long dead. Is there any music scene of note in the North West? In the '80's & '90's you had the Madchester scene with the happy Mondays and the Stone Roses, based around the Hacianda, but that also has long since gone.


The drug of choice in the North west is no longer uppers such as Amphetamine Sulphate, but Heroin. Sadly this has taken root in the male working class communities, to replace work and pub culture. Whole pit towns have descended into a smack induced torpor of hopelessness, where any ambition means moving out and moving on. Where young men would go down the pits, earn good money and drink the nights away, many have consoled themselves to life getting stoned on benefits and watching TV. Prior to Thatchers de-industrialisation, heroin usage was primarily an urban problem. Perhaps the saddest legacy of her rule is that now the evil shit is everywhere.


As to the trades unions. Where are they now? Let me tell you where. They are on the verge of a precipice. The current government has launched a program of cuts, which will decimate many sectors of society. Unlike Thatcher, these aren't policies targeted specifically to destroy unions, but I suspect that unless the Trades unions get their act together, they will be despatched to oblivion. Which unions are successful and are seeing rising membership? Those such as the RMT who are not afraid to fight the corner for their members. 


In Barnet, we have a highly right wing council, bent on using the spending cuts as an excuse to destroy public services. This isn't just me saying this, the Future Shape/Easycouncil/One Barnet cuts were planned long before the coalition was thought of. In fact Gordon Brown was riding high in the polls, when the scheme was first mooted. All sorts of essential services are facing cuts. Libraries, Childrens Centres, Support for people with brain injuries. Not only that but effective and well run departments, such as parking control are being outsourced to private companies, with target based quotas of fines. 


If you took a working man from Bolton, Burnley or Wigan on the day Lou Reed wrote his song and transported him to 2010, drove him around and told him what had happened, what would he say? what would he think? I doubt he'd believe it unless he saw it with his own eyes. If you look at Barnet Councils plans for future shape, for Brent Cross redevelopment you have a glimpse of what we are facing. If you look at how they are refusing to enforce planning laws, especially in conservation areas and green belt, you can get a glimpse of where we are going. 


In the words of Lou Reed, as he sung the final lines of one of the greatest songs ever "You're going to reap just what you sow". If you do nothing and let it happen, then you are part of it and you are responsible for it.

Cost Cutting - Barnet Council Style

Do you know how old I am. I remember the days of looney Labour Councils, when every day the Sun would lead with a new story of bonkers schemes and wasting of public money.

 How times change :-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/oct/26/barnet-no-frills-council-overspends

Of course if you've been reading this blog it's old news.

Footnote : Looney Labour Brent Council now has lower Council Tax than Totally Tory Barnet

A message to Barnet Tory Councillors from Conservative Home - When Outsourcing proceed with caution

As there seems to be no voices of sanity within Barnet that our Tory Councillors will listen to, maybe they'll listen to some advice from the Conservative Home blog. This gave a reasonably intelligent discussion of the subject by a couple of guys who know what they are talking about. Whilst I don't sign up to what they say lock, stock and barrell, I do think that the summary makes a point our local Councillors would well advised to heed, as they rush in with no business plan, no milestones and no business case (according to Grant Thornton, their own auditors)

This is the summary :-

Summary

There are many factors to consider when considering outsourcing. Its always a good idea to bring in some experienced outside assistance if you lack experience internally, it can save a lot of time, hassle, and money in the longer term.

Above all don't rush in without a clear understanding of how to manage and measure the arrangement. Articulate all expectations, assume nothing even if it seems obvious, and remember that the devil is often in the detail.

The full article is here

http://conservativehome.blogs.com/localgovernment/2010/10/outsourcing-proceed-with-care.html#more

For any council proceeding with outsourcing, I'd say the advice detailed in this piece is the bare minimum you need to consider to ensure you've not been negligent in your duties. I would especially urge them to pay due regard to this sentence :-

The capacity for conflicted interest is enormous and some individuals have found themselves in very difficult positions when a particular arrangement has begun to turn sour

The sooner Barnet Council moves to an open, honest and transparent model, like Windsor and Maidenhead, the sooner I can get back to blogging about football and music.

Barnet easyCouncil....don't follow SouthWestOne disaster...

As Barnet Council embarks on its One Barnet/Future Shape outsourcing project, it is worth considering the experience of other councils where similar projects have been tried.

You may have seen the Southwest One ITV West documentary made 18 months ago detailing the IBM takeover of services in Somerset. The project was beset with controversy. Somerset County Council back then was a Lib-Dem Council; however the Deputy Leader found himself subject to a large number of Standard Board charges. This councillor was objecting to the Southwest One project. It took him two years to clear his name.

Somerset UNISON fought a campaign to expose the secrecy surrounding this Project and surprise surprise the branch secretary was suspended for almost six months. I am pleased to report he is back in the UNISON office.

For those of you who saw the ITV West documentary will know the project was shrouded in secrecy and very few people actually saw the Business Case for the project. I have a copy of the documentary if anyone would like to view it.

Bridgewater MP Ian Liddell-Grainger (Con) has been campaigning against Southwest One for over two years and fought hard to have access to the Business Case.

I imagine Somerset County Lib-Dem councillors wish they had demanded to see the Business Case as the Lib-Dem’s were later ousted by the Conservatives in the last elections.

Interestingly a contingent from SouthwestOne paid a visit to Barnet during the summer. I don’t know what they discussed but after viewing this latest news I really, really hope they haven’t been advising Barnet Council on the benefits of partnerships with the Private Sector

Professor Dexter Whitfield was the consultant providing expert advice for Somerset UNISON Branch. Dexter said at the time “The Somerset strategic partnership with IBM was a classic example of ideologically driven outsourcing. Somerset UNISON warned about the declining level of savings and higher contract management costs. The increasing annual losses of the joint venture company serve to illustrate the high risks involved in these contracts."

Dexter has and continues to provide expert advice for the branch.

Take a look at this report

From Local Government Chronicle

Somerset joint venture loses £16m in its first year

21 October 2010 | By Ruth Keeling

A controversial joint venture between Somerset’s councils, police force and IBM has made a multi-million pound loss for the second year running.

Southwest One posted an operating loss of £16.1m in its second year of operation, according to accounts lodged with Companies House earlier this month.

The 2008-09 accounts state that the loss – a significant increase on the £2m it lost in its first year – “was larger than originally budgeted” because its investment period had to be extended and because it failed to attract new customers. A credit facility from parent company IBM means it will continue to operate for the “foreseeable future”, according to the accounts.

The joint venture was set up in September 2007 by IBM, who own three-quarters of the company, and Somerset CC and Taunton Deane BC to provide back office services including HR, finance, estates management and IT. Avon and Somerset Police later joined the partnership but it has been dogged by arguments from the first.

Most recently, it emerged that the two councils would be fined because of the extra checks that the Audit Commission had to make on their accounts prepared by the firm. Taunton Deane said it would pay its £15,000 charge itself while Somerset CC, whose leader is currently considering an internal review of the Southwest One contract, said it would pass the charge on to the company.

The contract, worth £585m over 10 years to the company, was set up with the aim of finding efficiencies for the three customers, although those savings have been downgraded from the £200m originally quoted to £144m “pipeline” savings listed in the most recent accounts.

In a statement, Southwest One emphasised that the 2008-09 figures were “a reflection that first of a kind ventures like this require up-front investment in the early stages” and stated that there had been no negative impact on the service. In fact, it added, a new customer contact centre had call waiting times for residents.

Southwest One’s accounts blamed its failure to attract new partners on the “adverse UK economic environment, coupled with a high degree of political uncertainty”.

However, the company said it was in discussion with a number of potential customers and argued that the spending review and the communities secretary’s enthusiasm for shared services would provide “significant opportunities”.

It stated: “South West One, as a pioneer in this field, is ideally-placed to help public bodies respond to this challenge”.

But Bridgewater MP Ian Liddell-Grainger (Con) branded the partnership a “failure” and questioned whether they would have any success in attracting new partners. “They’re such a tarnished outfit that short of changing their name there is no point in talking to anybody,” he said.

Somerset CC said it had no further comment to that provided by Southwest One.

"I bet they had no comment."

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

I nicked this from the Unison blog with a few small amendments - here's the original

http://www.barnetunison.me.uk/?q=node/509

Barnet Future Shape : Dodgy figure alert ?

The figures for many of the Barnet Future Shape cuts are detailed in this document


http://committeepapers.barnet.gov.uk/democracy/reports/reportdetail.asp?ReportID=9713

I was once given some advice by a forensic auditor. It is easy to tell when figures are real and when figures are made up in such documents. The real ones are generally fairly random numbers and the made up ones are fairly round numbers.

If I was Councillor Lynne Hillan, Councillor Bran Coleman, Councillor Mark Shooter, Councillor Andrew Harper or any of the other Barnet Councillors who want to become movers and shakers, I'd want to look at how all of these numbers were arrived at. It's pretty clear to me that all of this is, shall we say, open to further scrutiny. Lets see if our ruling Tory Councillors can be bovered.

Of course I'm sure Councillor Robert Ramsbottom thinks this paper is marvellous.

An initiative that Barnet Police should copy

So what do our police do? I was intrigued by this report from the Weston Chronicle that Police were teaching youngsters how to investigate UFO crash sites -

http://www.thewestonmercury.co.uk/content/twm/news/story.aspx?brand=Westonmercury&category=news&tBrand=westonmercury&tCategory=znews&itemid=WeED29%20Sep%202010%2015:39:08:140

It made me think about the Future Shape project. How long will it be before we have the police running such seminars in Barnet as part of "Big Society". Lets face it, getting a classful of nine year olds trained to investigate UFO crashes would be far cheaper than using the police or army. Given that Robert Rams thinks Starbucks should run the Libraries and Lynne Hillan thinks BT should run the Warden service (or replace the wardens with a phone system), it is probably one of the less bonkers crackpot ideas I've heard recently

Barnet Future Shape : Barnet Council soft on contractor quality and delivery

Today our sister website, the Future Shape Leaks website has published a document detailing the criteria used to select Agilsys as the supplier for a contract rumoured to be worth £2.5 million with Barnet Council. This document is deemed "exempt from publication". As I examined it, I guess it became clear why :-
http://barnetfutureshape.blogspot.com/2010/10/barnet-future-shape-exempt-from.html

The key section is this, the weighted scoring for assessing the potential bidders

It is fairly clear that Agilsys were the cheapest, given that they got a perfect score of 40 out of 40 for this. What is also clear is that for quality they only managed 34.65 out of 60. One of the other bidders (name redacted) actually got a better score for "delivery  including capacity and capability". Does this mean that the Council only ascribes a 60% probablity of the the company having the capacity and capability to deliver? Does it mean that the quality of goods and associated services is only 56% of what they require? Without seeing a more detailed breakdown of these assessments it is hard to draw too many conclusions. We do know that the council has committed to spending a huge sum of money with a company which it's own tendering process has not exactly given a massive vote of confidence to, in terms of delivery and quality. I wonder if Nick Walkley, CEO of Barnet Council or Councillor Lynne Hillan, the Leader would care to explain why this is good value?

The only winners with Future Shape

The only winners with Future Shape are
1. Consultants  http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-the-management-consultancy-scam-2057127.html?action=Popup
 and here
http://committeepapers.barnet.gov.uk/democracy/reports/reportdetail.asp?reportid=9396

2. Private sector Metronet £420 million loss to the taxpayer
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8544491.stm
Catalyst
http://www.hangbitching.com/2010/08/barnet-council-loses-6m/

3. Bankers http://www.financemarkets.co.uk/2010/10/05/city-bankers-to-receive-7bn-bonuses-this-year/

And the losers are :-

Us - The Council Tax Payers of Barnet

Exposed - Barnet Council and the art of cheating in public tendering

Barnet Council Future Shape tendering - this is quite unbelievable :-

Go to this link

http://committeepapers.barnet.gov.uk/democracy/reports/reportdetail.asp?ReportID=9648

Open the PDF and go to page 20 -  The Scoring system is clearly distorted. Read the notes  - not exactly biased are they?

The whole documents is full of assumptions , contradictory statements and more future shape gobbledegook.

It insults staff by stating “But it is also very clear that the services require a fresh injection of intellectual capital..”

Why have they hidden the figures this way I don’t know but it is in  public document so at least we now know.

It's bad enough that Barnet Council are distiorting the process of bidding for public service contracts. What is worse is the fact that they are too dim to realise we'd catch them and they insult us by calling their employees thick in the process. If I was going to start with a fresh injection of intellectual capital in Barnet, I'd suggest they start with the leadership.

Save Barnets Library service from closure - Stall in Mill Hill Broadway, Saturday 10.30am -12.30pm

Please come down, sign the petition and find out how you can oppose the Barnet Council Library Closure program. If you can't make it, please sign the on-line petition in the sidebar. Once the Library service has been closed down, the buildings sold off and the staff sacked, it will be gone forever.


We have a stark choice in Barnet. We can get off our backsides and try and stop Barnet Council ruining the Borough, so that they can keep their lovely juicy allowances or we can let them destroy all of the things which make Barnet a great place to live. Here's a short list of things (by no means conclusive) of all the things threatened by future shape

Librarys,
The Green Belt,
Sheltered Housing Warden Services,
local cemetries and morgues.
playing fields,
Childrens Services,
Services for the elderly,
Advice centres

Here's a list of things not threatened

Councillor Allowances
Consultants pay packets
Barnet Council executives pay packets & pensions
Council Civic Buffets
Cuncillors Jollies

Do you care? If you do please make a start by signing the petition in the sidebar opposing the Library Closure program

Barnet Council - more leaks than a St Davids day parade

The Barnet Eye is pleased to announce the relaunch of our sister blog today as a wikileaks style resource for anyone who has some juicy info about Barnet Council Future Shape program which should be in the public domain, but Barnet Council are hiding. We kick off today with this - a document slid under our door which is entitled "CSO Success : Notes for the Project Team".


http://barnetfutureshape.blogspot.com/2010/09/cso-project-notes-for-barnet-council.html

The best bits are in section 3 - here's a few choice quotes

3.2 - "You need a project plan for the consolidation"

3.6 Revenues and benefits. How are you going to reach a decision on this? As you know, the manager isn't convinced you bring any benefits, but is convinced splitting up the service imports change risk to critical services ....

and best of all

3.12 ..... can you access any bridging finance where channel shift has up front costs, for you or services.....

In other words

a) There is no proper plan
b) The bloke implementing the project thinks it delivers nothing worthwhile
c) The project isn't properly financed and hasn't got the cash it needs

I wonder how many councillors have seen this document. If they have it's scandalous that they are proceeding. If they haven't then it is even more disgusting.

Sometimes I wonder just what our Councillors get paid for? It certainly seems that our Tory masters in Barnet don't think they are paid to protect our interests. Please forward me any other nuggets you feel the public of Barnet deserve to see. It is 100% clear to me that the Leader of the Council is engaged in covering up a huge and systemic case of mismanagement. It is not clear at all to me why she should wish to do so.

Barnet Twat Update : Is Brian Coleman jealous of Robert Rams new found fame?

My sources tell me that Brian Coleman has not been a happy bunny at all today. What could be troubling him? Well for years he has revelled in being the Barnet Tories bogeyman. He has been a figure of hate for the left (and just about everyone else including nearly half of the Tory Councillors in Barnet) and he loves it. His infamy gives him purpose and celebrity.

I've long been of the opinion that he only makes his inflammatory outbursts, so he can sit back and watch the bloggers whip themselves up into a frenzy. Sadly it seems that his powers are on the wane. His star is fading into the Western skies. There is a new kid on the block, who makes even good old Brian look sensible. Enter stage right, Robert Rams. Even more galling for Brian Coleman is the fact that Ramsbottom is his bag carrier at the GLA.

As a result of this blog, it's investigation into the Grant Thornton report, it's exposure of Mr Ramsbottoms twattish behaviour and his stupid comments about libraries, Coleman has taken on the aura of "Yesterdays man". Now, when we want a stupid comment, it's Rams we look to, not Brian Coleman.

Coleman has twice tried to kick up a stink today. Firstly he made stupid comments about the trades council campaign launch. This was a meeting attended by hundreds of local people to fight Robert Rams Future Shape program. A star studded panel, including world famous film director Ken Loach, launched the protest. You can read Colemans comments if you want, but to be quite honest they are so stupid, it's hardly worth the effort. The picture on the left was taken there. Coleman claimed the meeting was badly organised by a lone voice - rather odd and rather at odds with reality (picture from Unison Blog - http://www.barnetunison.me.uk/?q=node/495 ):-

Colemans comments to the Times group can be viewed here :-
http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/8412824.Unions_blasted_for_advertising_BBC_speaker_visit/?ref=mc

Coleman also spouted off about Londons Firemen. These comments were extremely odd. He thought it odd that Firemen would want to lose a days pay to protest about dangerous changes to their working patterns that he (in his role as Chairman of the Fire Service) is trying to impose. Coleman has told the firemen that unless they unilaterally accept the changes he's trying to impose, without proper negotiaition, that he'll sack the lot of them. He claims he can't understand why they are upset.

Again, you can read his bizarre blatherings here :-
http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/8412433.Coleman_urges_firefighters_not_to_strike/

The only rational explanation for Colemans outbursts today is that he's jealous because we think Robert Rams is a bigger Twat than him. He wants to reclaim the crown. Sadly for Coleman, whilst there are many words which would sum him up, I don't think Twat does.

Unlike Rams, who is just plain dim, Brian Coleman is quite intelligent. I genuinely feel sorry for him, as I believe that his lack of social graces and his desire to strike out at opponents is due to the rather nasty bullying he suffered at school (this has been confirmed to me by former classmates). When he rants at our brave firemen, it is really the rantings of a scared and puny 12 year old, getting his own back on the big tough boys who made his life hell. When he rails against the Unions, it is railing against his dislike of "group solidarity" as he was always a bit of an outsider at school. I urge everyone in Barnet not to get angry with Brian Coleman. Feel sorry for him, because he's really rather sad inside. His biggest fear is that the only thing he's ever been really good at is about to be snatched away from him by Rams, who I suspect is what we all thought Coleman was, before we realised he is just a victim lashing out.

The Guardian disses twat boy Robert Rams and future shape

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/sep/23/barnet-easycouncil-costcutting-plan-criticised

Quote of the day from the Guardian -

Mike Freer, the former council leader who championed the reform, has since been elected to parliament and the leadership of the project passed to Rams, a less senior figure. Labour believes this may indicate a lack of belief in a project.

The Barnet Eye concurs  - Don't forget to vote in the poll - today is the final day. It seems that the Guardian, having read all the evidence has concurred with The Barnet Eye on the abilities of Robert Rams and the value of Future Shape.

The Guardian also mentions the plan to sell off the Boroughs Librarys (another of Twatboys masterplans) - If you don't want to see this happen, visit us tomorrow (Saturday) on Mill Hill Broadway between 10am and noon. Here is the second quote of the day

The council is considering closing some of its 16 libraries and relocating them with other services. A council paper this month discussed selling off libraries, because like allotments and sports clubs, they are now a "lifestyle choice" and said there is "a genuine case with safeguards to make disposals". The paper admits such a sell-off would invite "public opprobrium".

This madness can be stopped, by a concerted community campaign. It won't be easy and it will take work. The important thing is that is we fight this idiocy every inch of the way and that we name and shame those who champion it.

Barnet Council Future Shape Scandal - My response to Andrew Travers

Following on from my previous posts on Future Shape/One Barnet and the scathing Grant Thornton audit report, here is a response I sent. This was emailed to all Barnet Councillors and the press, in response to a supposed "clarification" sent to all Barnet Councillors by Mr Andrew Travers, Deputy Chief Executive of Barnet Council, following my original email.

See this blog for further details of the original post
http://barneteye.blogspot.com/2010/09/barnet-council-scandal-letter-to-barnet.html

Mr Reasonable has written an interesting blog on the Audit Committee meeting

http://reasonablenewbarnet.blogspot.com/2010/09/audit-committee-oops-we-lost-2m.html

I couldn't be at the meeting, had a school transfer meeting to attend for my son. From what MrReasonable has to say, it sounds like the penny could finally be dropping with our local Tories.

Anyway, this was my riposte to MR  A.T. Ravers email
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Barnet Councillors,

I have been passed this email detailing the response from Andrew Travers to my email asking that you read the report prepared for Barnet Council.

Like Mr Travers, I too would like you to ensure that you understand the full context of this report - You can find it by accessing this link

http://committeepapers.barnet.gov.uk/democracy/reports/reportdetail.asp?ReportID=9615

Strangely Mr Travers makes no reference to the findings and the recommendations as set out in the Grant Thornton report (see below) - this is an extract from thre report.

Mr Travers makes no mention of the fact that no business case has been developed, the benefits and outcomes have not been identifies and most seriously, it has a high risk profile.

Whilst it is quite clear that Mr Travers has drawn a significantly different and more rosy conclusion of the contents of the report, all I ask is that you read the report in its entirity. If you have not got time to do this, please read at the very least, sections 3.2 and 3.3. These clearly show that there are serious issues with the management and implementation of this project. These sections paint a far less rosy picture than the rather selective extracts that Wendy Stout circulated.

Given the large sums discussed, I believe it is vital that all Barnet Councillors read this report in full, to ensure that they can in no way be accused of being negligent in their duty to the Council Taxpayers of Barnet. I suggest that councillors urgently contact Mr Travers to clarify the full implications of the issues identified and the recommendations. I would suggest that Councillors also ask how the figures detailed in this email can be derived without there being proper estimates of cost.

The function of elected representatives is to keep the executive in check. This means, on occasion reading reports such as this and asking difficult questions of Council officers aned reigning in their schemes.

Regards

Roger Tichborne

The failure of the Press in Barnet and why I bother doing this

I used to write a blog on the Hendon Times much like this. Following pressure from the ruling Tories on Barnet Council, this was stopped in October 2008. I was told that Brian Coleman crowed "We've seen the last of him". I started the Barnet Eye blog. Today I was reminded why I didn't "F*** off and die" as a certain councillor hoped. There is a massive scandal concerning the finances of the future shape program. This has been compounded by pressure from the executive to ignore a report by Grant Thornton auditors. I copied the local press, who have websites into the correspondence, so that they could broadcast what is clearly a matter of public importance. To date they haven't bothered to say a dickybird. If they do now, it is too late for the meeting of the audit committee which is going on as I write this. I could despair. I would despair but for two things. The magnificent support of the readers of this blog, growing all the time, here's the stats for the last three months. As you can see, with 10 days of the month to go, the stats just keep on rising month on month.

The other thing which makes it worthwhile is the fact that there are other blogs in Barnet who also care. I draw great support from this. They are on both the left and right of the argument, but most of all they care. Please take five minutes to have a look at the sidebar in the right hand column and check them all out.

Generally there is a decline in circulation and readership of the traditional local papers. As they are free, most of the people in Barnet still see them on a weekly basis, wheras you have to choose to look at this blog. I'm not having a go at the journalists on these papers. They do their best and I am not having a go at them, but it is time for the editors to get out of their comfort zones, start campaigning, start taking risks and start serving the people of Barnet. Three years ago, this blog didn't exist. Now look how many people read it. This isn't because I'm a genius or even a good writer. It's because their is a fierce interest in these issues.

Thanks for your support. I do this in my spare time, which is why I can't cover all of the things I'd like to. This is why I can't attend things like the audit committee tonight (had to attend a meeting for my sons school transfer). I apologise for the fact I can't. It is time that the people of Barnet started getting the service they'd like from the people who's job it is to provide it, rather than from people like me. I hope these stats might get the editors thinking about the fact that they are actually missing a huge opportunity to grow their readerships. What is undeniable is that in three years, this blog has grown from nothing to a very respectable figure, for something which mostly just covers the shenanigan of our local masters. Just imagine what the figures would be like if I could cover sport, arts, local news, restaurants. Anyway, must go, got a studio to run.