The Saturday List #88 - The Top Ten fiascos from Barnet Council

As everyone knows, Barnet Council cocked up the 2016 Mayoral elections. You may think that this omnishables is a one off. Think again, here is our top 10 shambles from our flagship Tory Council!

1. Mayoral/ GLA election 2016. Voters disenfranchised for up to four hours due to incorrect lists being cieculated. Voters turned away from polls, even though registered to vote.

2. General Election 2010 - Dismore denied victory by poling station cock ups.

3. Icelandic banks scandal - Council loses millions of taxpayers money in dodgy investment schemes.

4. Aerodrome Road scandal - £12 million Bridge renewal project goes over budget by £11 million.

5. Metpro scandal - Council employs unlicensed security company for security of vulnerable people.

6. Catalyst care homes - Legionella outbreaks and suing the council for not making enough profits (you couldn't make this one up!).

7. SAP project - Council spends £24 million on an IT system that was only supposed to cost £6 million.  

8. Your Choice Barnet - Council outsources adult care and a year later has to bale out the private company running it with millions.

9. Barnet CPz fiasco - Barnet hiked the cost of CPZ zones. Residents took them to court and had the decision overturned. Barnet had to pay millions back to residents and hundreds of thousands in legal costs. 

10. Abolition of Pay and Display parking. Barnet Tory parking svengali Brian Coleman was on the rampage in 2011. Bouyed by the Tories election victory in 2010, he embarked on a war on motorists. He took on residents with the CPZ price hike (see item 9 above) and High Street retailers in the Borough by abolishing pay and display parking. Coleman paid the price losing the plumb job at the GLA in the 2012 election and pay and display meters reappeared. The council lost millions on the cost of scrapping the old ones and installing new one.

There are plenty of other cock ups, but these are the top ten. Every Barnet resident has been affected by the ineptitude of the Tory administration. The millions lost could have been spent on many things to improve our Borough, the business damaged by the CPZ problems could have employed hundreds of local residents and the vulnerable, disabled and elderly could have had a better quality of life. All rather sad, isn't it>

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.

A Proper Newspaper for Our Barnet !

What do you do when you're sick to death of the press not telling the truth about what is going on? Well if like myself, Vicki M and the rest of the Barnet Alliance for Public Services, you are not prepared to let the Council get away with spouting porkies for the press to slavishly reprint verbatum, you write and distribute your own newspaper setting the record straight. I have written a column in the paper detailing why it I started the libraries campaign and why we haven't been told the truth. Click on the link to read it. We are delivering it to homes all around Barnet this week and it is also available at key places. Please look out for it and take the trouble to read it. If you can help deliver it or want to know more about the campaign, please email us at barnetalliance4publicservices@gmail.com

The worst recent example of this uncritical press coverage is this justification of the cuts by Councillor Daniel Thomas.
http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/8783837.Fees_increase__in_line__with_other_boroughs_says_councillor/

Surely the press should contact an opposition councillor for balance? Here is one porkie which he spouted which was completely unchallenged :-

Councillor Daniel Thomas, cabinet member for resources, said the increases will help plug the £43m hole.He added: “The enormous financial challenges we are facing at the moment mean we are having to look in detail at every aspect of the services we provide to residents.

So you may ask, what is wrong with this. Well, I couldn't let it go unchallenged so here's the comment I left

Please can the Hendon Times stop slavishly stop spouting Tory propoganda and tell the truth. The financial mess was caused by the failed Icelandic investments which lost £27.4 million, the Aerodrome Road overspend which cost £11 million and the freemantle court case which cost £6 million. If you add all of these up, you will see that it's exactly the amount Daniel Thomas claims has been withdrawn - £43 million. The Times is meant to investigate and inform. It is not meant to repeat propoganda for lazy, useless and incompetent Tory Councillors who have mismanaged the Boroughs finances.

Given that all of these issues are widely known and have been reported many times, why didn't the Times pull up Thomas for his blatent porkmeistering?

Here's a few links to prove that unlike Thomas, I'm not bulls***ing.

Icelandic Investments
http://www.times-series.co.uk/your_local_areas/4169656.Council_may_lose___27_4m_of_Icelandic_deposits__says_minister/

Aerodrome Road
http://www.times-series.co.uk/your_local_areas/4346831.Aerodrome_Road_runs___11m_over_budget/

Fremantle/Catalyst (I got this wrong, the claim is £8 million, not £6)
http://www.times-series.co.uk/your_local_areas/3685068.Care_home_firm_demands___8m_from_council/

That is why we wrote the newspaper. That is why it is vital that the residents of Barnet read it. I believe that if people know the truth about these cuts and the councils incompetence, they will take a very different view of what is going on. Once we realise that the £43 million of cuts is directly down to Barnet Tory Incompetence, maybe we'll ALL do something about it

Traffic Calming - Barnet Council Style

Last year I attended a meeting of Barnet Councils Cabinet where Mr Novak, who lives in Uphill Road, presented a paper detailing why road humps should be put back into his road. His report had the support of all but three of the residents. He detailed how hundreds of schoolchildren us his road to walk to Mill Hill County High. He detailed how 50% of cars break the speed limit according to the councils own stats (bearing in mind that at some periods of the day there is congestion). He detailed how residents had suffered accidents due to speeding motorists using the road as a ratrun from Marsh Lane to Lawrence Street. He detailed how motorists hurtled down the road to avoid Apex Corner as a cut through to Mill Hill Circus. In short he made his case.

Barnet Councils then road supremo, Andrew Harper (now deputy Leader) dismissed the report. The views of local residents didn't matter. The safety of schoolchildren didn't matter. Why, you may ask?

The answer which Mr Harper gave, in no uncertain terms was this "Barnet Council is a motorist friendly Council so we don't want traffic calming measures, the car comes first". Mr Harper pointed out that the average speed in Uphill Road was just under the speed limit, therefore there wasn't a problem (ignoring the fact that this meant 50% of cars were breaking the speed limit). Mr Harper said that road humps damage cars and slow down emergency services. This is paramount. The emergency services must be able to get from A to B as quickly as possible (no doubt to attend accidents caused by speeding motorists).

As I drove around the London Borough of Barnet this weekend, I pondered Andrew Harpers comments. Due to Barnet  being unable to access £27.4 of reserves in Iceland, having reportedly lost £12 Million completely and having lost milions in interest, there is a cash crisis. As a result Pothles are not being fixed. These have sprung up all over the Borough. On many busy roads such as Pursely road, used by the 221 bus, these are huge. Car suspensions are being destroyed by these menacing obstacles. Wheras you see road humps and there are signs to alert you, potholes are a hidden menace. I saw an ambulance on Pursley Road nearly crash on Saturday, avoiding a particularly nasty hole.

The thing about potholes is that they grow every day they aren't fixed. As they grow, the whole fabric of the road disintegrates. A small hole can be fixed relatively cheaply and easily, as they grow, the whole road cracks up. When it comes down to it, this is one of the first and most noticeable signs of Barnets Icelandic financial woes. A decent administration would have set up a "Potholes task force" after the bad weather and would have fixed them up as soon as they appeared. In the long run this is far cheaper than resurfacing the whole road. Next time Harper and his colleagues tell you they are motorist friendly, consider the damage being done to cars everywhere by Barnets pot holes.

As to the cost. If you damage your car on a pothole, it is the responsibility of the Council. I'd suggest you write to Andrew Harper and ask him for the cash.

Traffic calming measures come in many forms. For Barnets Tories, their favourate is the Pot hole.

How much dosh has Mike Freer lost in Iceland?

It seems that Mike Freer and his Mates (Mates is a brand of condom designed to keep a dick separate from nasty things and stop unplanned events further down the line, as well as being a slang word for a friend) are still spinning the old porkie that he's lost no money in Iceland.

I thought we'd do a bit of analysis on the situation (on the back of a cigarrette packet).



a) What Mike has definately lost - if he'd invested the £27.4 Million in banks which hadn't gone bust, at the same rate of interest, he'd have £913,333 in the kitty in interest. Whatever happens, that is gone - that is the figure as of today. Every day that the money is frozen figure goes up by £6,005.00

b) What Mike will optimistically won't get back - The most optimistic figure is 80% (and this is the most optimistic by a country mile) = £5.48 Million lost (along with with the interest on top) - I believe the Council have set a 25% probability on this being the likely settlement.

c) What Mike has realistically lost - The consensus is less than 50% will come back - So probably more than £13.7 Million. I believe that the Council have set a 65% probability of this being the likely settlement.

d) What Mike Could lose - The lot - £27.4 Million + interest - if it all goes wrong for Barnet.
I believe that the Council have set a 10% probability on this being the likely outcome.

e) The costs of dealing with the fiasco - accountants etc, travel to Iceland, staff, expert advice - a little birdy told me that the cost is well above £150,000 - but I've no idea if that figure is true. Former Councillor Richard Weider confirmed to me that the average cost of these consultants is well above £1,000 a day.

However you look at it, the figures are huge. Has Mike apologised for this? Nope. Has he even admitted there will be a loss. Nope.

Mike and his Mates, know my email address. If they dispute any of these figures, then they can email me their revised and more accurate figures and I'll put them up here. If anyone from the Council want's to use this blog or any other blog to give us an honest council estimate of the situation, then fine. The claim that "Nothing" has been lost is a porkie. This information isn't commercially sensitive, it's not as if there is any competition in collecting council tax. We pay it, the we elect the council, but they have told us nothing, given us no figures and just indulged in Damian McBride style spin. The figures I quote above are back of the fag packet estimates based on information in the public domain. They may be wrong, but until the council come clean they are the best figures I've got.

Now let me just clarify one last thing. The source figures I've used are partially based on information given to me by someone very close to the matter at the council in a conversation. I trust that person and believe the information to be accurate, but there have been comments that the Council are deliberately leaking porkies to blogs - If it is wrong then I'd be more than happy to post the correct figures.

Oh and always make sure you've got your Mates close at hand. It is just as important to be safe with your sexual health as it is for the Head of Resources at the Council to Be Safe with our money. I recall Mrs Thatcher's AIDS campaign. Let's hope that what we're being told isn't the tip of the Iceberg !

Misuse of public funds

The taxpayers of Barnet have been exposed to a £292 Million risk due to Barnet Council not following it's own agreed policy. The Council leader Mike Freer made this 100% clear in his statement this week. He stated "Despite previous assurances from Barnet Council Officers that correct treasury management controls were applied to Icelandic deposits, it has now come to light that in fact this was not the case. On Monday 9th March I was presented with a scrutiny working group report which makes clear that officers did not in fact follow the correct procedures despite having repeatedly told me both verbally and in writing that they had done so."

Mike Freer went on to say "An external investigation will be carried out to identify why our external auditors did not pick up these issues in their previous audit work. I would like however to reassure residents that at this point the Icelandic deposits remain frozen by the administrators of the two banks involved and discussions around the return of this money remain positive and ongoing".

Hang on a second. He's just clearly stated that public funds (ie our money) has been misused. Not only that, but a systematic cover up has taken place over a period of nearly six months. He says that this cover up is documented in writing.

It could not possibly be more clear. Surely there has been a conspiracy to cover up malpractice within Barnet Council? If this is the case, Mike Freer should not have called external auditors, he should have called the Police. Mike Freer states that "officers" (plural) were involved. This surely means that there has been collusion in the process. I am prepared to take at face value Mike Freer's statement that he was unaware of this, until alerted by the scrutiny committee.

I call on Mike Freer to ask the Police to investigate this. If he won't then maybe someone could inform me of the procedure of how I could. If I have got this wrong and Mike hasn't said there has bee financial malpractise or a cover up by officials please let me know ASAP because from where I am sitting it looks highly suspicious to me. The amounts are huge and this looks as if it will hurt every taxpayer in Barnet. As such, surely the Police should be involved