Hello shy, hello sun, hello Capita - Barnet is coming around for tea !

Here's a joke for the senior management (see below for details) at Capita, who are in the process of taking over provision of 70% of services currently provided by the council.

Q: What is the difference between syphilis and the Barnet bloggers?

A: If you catch syphilis early enough, you can get rid of it.

Sadly no such option is available once you get the attention of Barnet bloggers. Now we are all highly reasonable people, who simply want the best for the place we live. If anyone had bothered to actually put forward an open, honest and transparent case which conclusively proved that the One Barnet proposal was risk free for the Barnet taxpayer and had benefits for the wider community, none of us would have turned our attention to it.

As it is, now you have engaged our services as armchair scrutineers, we intend to do everything we can to hold you to account and make sure that Capita's activities are properly scrutinised. Before Xmas we held Capita week where we highlighted other outsourcing schemes they'd implemented and discussed the issues raised. This tied in with a protest organised by the Barnet Alliance for public services.

Since then, a Barnet resident has launched a judicial review process, hoping to address flaws in the award of the contract. It may well be that Capita will have the golden prize snatched away by the High Court. I suspect if this does happen, in the long term it will be good for Capita. Barnet is a hornets nest of media activity. Whilst cockups in Birmingham or Liverpool are well away from the media hubs and so get relatively little coverage, Barnet is the world centre of innovative protests. We have a library run by Occupy movement, a team of bloggers who have been recognised by none other than Eric Pickles and a populace that gets up off it's backside and takes an interest. More people working in the media live in the London Borough of Barnet than anywhere else and many are on first name terms with various bloggers. We supply stories to The Guardian, The Daily Mirror, The Evening Standard, Private Eye, BBC, ITV London Tonight, and BBC London 94.9 to name but a few media oulets that have featured Barnet bloggers stories in the last year. We make films which get shown at the House of Commons and all around the land at such diverse places as the Edinburgh Festival and the Unison conference.

Anyway, I'm a nice reasonable bloke. I thought I'd ask myself down to tea. Listed below are the board of directors of Capita. If you guys would be interested, I'd be more than happy to give you a 1 hour presentation, explaining the likeley reputational damage Capita PLC may suffer as a result of its involvement with the One Barnet program. Whilst I'm sure there are many things Capita do well, I am sure that they have no clue as to how effective the bloggers of Barnet and the people of Barnet are at getting a message across. I'm happy to speak to the board and at least inform them what they are up against. There is an email link in the top right hand corner of this blog. All I ask for providing this service is a cup of green tea and an hour of your time. You will be able to ask me any question you like about blogging, campaigning, film making and use of social media.

I'd say you would be acting with negligence towards your shareholders if you didn't take the offer up. In my past life, I worked for many blue chip institutions on outsourcing projects, so I do have a comprehesive understanding of the issue and if there are benefits that the people of Barnet are unaware of, what better way to share them. If anyone at Capita thinks that the Barnet bloggers will simply disappear or get bored, just check this blog history and see how long we've been running the campaign. I'd suggest a quick look at the other blogs as well.

For the information of the Barnet populace, information about the Capita board of directors can be found here.

http://www.capita.co.uk/about-us/pages/board%20of%20directors.aspx

And here is who they are

Martin Bolland

Non-Executive Chairman

Paul Pindar

Chief Executive

Gordon Hurst

Group Finance Director

Andy Parker

Joint Chief Operating Officer

Vic Gysin

Joint Chief Operating Officer

Maggi Bell

Business Development Director

Martina King

Non-Executive Director

Paul Bowtell

Non-Executive Director

Gillian Sheldon

Independent Non-Executive Director

Lets face it, George Osborne hasn't got a clue

Normally I steer clear of national politics on this blog. Once in a while, it all gets too much and I have to say something. It's just that sometimes, it becomes so abundantly clear that the government has not got a clue about the real economy that something has to be said. Last week the Government and the Bank of England decided to commit another £75,000,000,000 to quantitative easing. This is being sold as "pumping money into the economy". It is nothing of the sort. If the government really wanted to pump money into the economy, they would simply cut fuel duty. Everything we do in the UK would be positively affected by this. It would be cheaper for people to get to and from work. It would be cheaper for companies to move their goods around the country, allowing a reduction in prices, which would stimulate sales. It would mean that every household in the country would have more money in their hard pressed budget to spend on goods, or paying their debts or paying the hidden taxes, those of us in Barnet are being clobbered with, or simply pay their winter fuel bills and keep warm.

You may be shocked that someone who supports a green agenda would suggest such a move? Surely high fuel taxes protect the environment? When times are good this argument can be made, but unless we take drastic action, we'll have a double dip recession and many ordinary families will be forced into poverty.

If all of the money being wasted on quantitative easing was spent on a simple cut in fuel duty, every part of the economy would be improved. At the moment this cash is simply going into bank coffers. As the vast majority of us keep our money in banks and spend it via various electronic methods (cards, net payments, ATM withdrawals), the banks would still get their hands on the vast majority of the cash, but we would be in control of how it was dished out, not them.

Sadly the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne has never had a real job in the real world (to quote Councillor Brian Coleman). He's only ever worked in a series of political non jobs. As such he doesn't seem to understand that transportation is what makes the economy work. If freight companies profits improve, they can reinvest in new fleets, which are leaner and greener, using modern technology. This country needs to completely overhaul it's energy policies, but this can only happen with a healthy economy. With the idiotic policies of Osborne, chucking good money after bad, this will never happen.

I would personally like to see a Royal Commission set up to ensure that over the next 15-20 years Great Britain becomes the most energy efficient, eco friendly and clean country on the planet. I would like to see us lead the way in clean energy technology, effective mass transport systems and energy efficient homes. None of this will happen with an economy in stagflation, which is where Osbornes policies will take us. We've spent a small fortune on the Libyan war. When Libyan oil comes back on line, there will be a drop in the world oil price. Will we see it at the pumps? No chance, because the stealthy Tories see it as a good source of revenue. It is beyond their wit to see that they could kickstart the economy and then pay for all manner of environmental initiatives out of the proceeds of economic growth.  By my maths £75 billion of quantitative easing is worth approx £2,500 per household in this country. Why is it beyond the wit of a Tory Chancellor to let us decide how that cash is spent, rather than the banks and bankers. I would guess that a fuel tax cut that put £500 in every families pocket would create infinitely more wealth than this bonkers scheme and would generate far more economic activity, at a fifth of the cost to the taxpayer.

Is there any chance that George Osborne will actually wake up to the fact he's driving the economy over a precipice? Is there any chance that he'll realise that he's chucking good money after bad with his policies? No chance. It is a well documented fact that certain Tory ministers are partial to this blog. Is there any chance that they could possibly have a word with dopey George and get him to actually do something sensible for the economy for a change?

Barnet Bloggers write to Eric Pickles about lack of transparency at Barnet Council

A letter to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government

Dear Mr Pickles,

In June last year, as part of your policy of commitment to the principle of ‘localism’ and greater accountability by local authorities to the communities they represent, you issued the following statement:

New era of transparency will bring about a revolution in town hall openness and accountability

“Getting council business out in the open will revolutionise local government.  Local people should be able to hold politicians and public bodies to account over how their hard earned cash is being spent and decisions made on their behalf. They can only do that effectively if they have the information they need at their fingertips.
“The public should be able to see where their money goes and what it delivers. The swift and simple changes we are calling for today will unleash an army of armchair auditors and quite rightly make those charged with doling out the pennies stop and think twice about whether they are getting value for money.”
As part of your programme of action to make local authorities more accountable you have created an obligation for them to disclose details of expenditure and have expressed the intention to compel councils to allow citizen journalists to film, photograph and tweet reports of council meetings.
In conjunction with these new directives, you have expressed the wish that residents use existing legislation in order to scrutinise the processes of local government, including, most importantly, the rights given in the Freedom of Information Act of 2000.
All of these suggestions are commendable, and should indeed further extend the powers of scrutiny to local communities.

It is deeply regrettable, therefore, that here in the London Borough of Barnet, rather than embrace a policy of greater transparency, the Conservative administration is making every effort to resist any obligation to be more accountable to its electorate, and is, in direct opposition to your wishes, obstructing the efforts of the armchair auditors that you so applaud.
In a speech at the CIPFA conference in July this year you made the following remark:

“I was shocked by a recent case in Barnet. The council had hired a private security firm, MetPro, which included “keeping an eye” on local bloggers - at a cost of over a million pounds. The contract had been awarded without a tendering exercise, without a written contract, and no proper invoicing. An internal audit showed there “serious deficiencies in current procurement arrangements”, and there were no guarantees that against a repeat of such practices.

Irony of ironies - this misuse of public money was uncovered thanks to the determination of local bloggers and activists, including Barnet Eye, Mr Mustard, and Mrs Angry (as she had every right to be.) Exactly the same people MetPro snooped upon.

I've got news for Barnet. Live blogging from council meetings. Microjournalism. Call it what you like. It's here to stay. In fact this citizen samizdat - local people reporting on their local council's triumphs and shortcomings - is the perfect counterblast to town hall Pravdas.”

As you know, Mr Pickles, here in Barnet bloggers have had to fight for the right to film council meetings, and we have made huge efforts to uncover the ‘deficiencies’ which lay at the heart of the MetPro affair, as well as bringing to the attention of the community a number of other serious issues of concern to all residents.

Earlier this year, in defiance of the move to greater transparency and accountability, and to a more meaningful engagement with citizens, we have seen Barnet’s Conservative administration attack the local constitution, restricting the right of elected councillors to speak at meetings, and worst of all, censoring the local Residents Forums so that absolutely no discussion of any council ‘policy’ may now be raised, nor any issue alluded to within a six month period be submitted for inclusion. These and other draconian and undemocratic regulations are read out in detail at every Forum, and their imposition has caused enormous anger and resentment amongst residents.

Even more worrying, perhaps, is that the culture of secrecy and fear of transparency which is so endemic in this local authority has now extended to the council’s flagrant abuse of the Freedom of Information Act.

Barnet bloggers and armchair auditors – and other residents – who have submitted FOI requests to Barnet Council are increasingly having their enquiries obstructed or needlessly delayed, particularly enquiries on issues of political or financial sensitivity.

Two FOI requests submitted by residents in regard to the MetPro affair, for example, were only answered a few days ago, on 16th September, after an inexplicable delay of several months.

One request had been made in early April, the other in early May. As you will know, the statutory period within which responses must be made is 20 days.

Another request made in relation to potential declarations of interest between senior officers of the council and a major private company was ignored for months and then obstructed on a pretext, despite a current outsourcing tender process for a package of services worth a staggering £750 million in total, in which this influential company is now one of those shortlisted.

In Barnet there is no open declaration of interests, gifts, or hospitality given to senior officers, and one response given to an FOI request by a blogger in regard to such declarations was sent with the identities of donors withheld, invalidating the information and again obstructing the purpose of the enquiry.

The FOI request in regard to the tendering company was reported to the external auditors at a meeting in July: despite an assurance that the issue would be investigated by them under the terms of their remit, we are not aware of any progress in their enquiry.

After struggling to hold the authority to account for FOI responses which were withheld, delayed, or misleading, one Barnet blogger has recently been sent, in reply to a perfectly valid question regarding a hugely over budget IT system, a response refusing to address his request for information, on the grounds that it is ‘vexatious’ and because of the alleged number of previous enquiries.

In Barnet, bloggers, armchair auditors and residents are obliged to resort to making an increasingly large number of FOI requests in response to an obstinate refusal by the authority to comply with the intentions of your stated commitment to greater openness, accountability and transparency, and in order to place the necessary information in the public domain, in a medium easily accessible to all.

Despite the demonstrably inadequate state of preparation revealed by the MetPro audit report, and despite the concerns of so many backbench Conservative councillors, a highly controversial programme of massive outsourcing is being promoted by Barnet’s senior management team and council leadership as the keystone policy of the ‘easycouncil’, One Barnet agenda. There could hardly be a time in which a need for openness and accountability could be more pressing. Public confidence in the governance of this borough is, however, at an all time low, and we, as residents and citizen journalists therefore ask that you, in defence of your policy of localism, investigate the obstructive and anti-democratic practices employed by this authority in a sustained attempt to prevent proper scrutiny of its actions and decisions.

Yours sincerely,

Derek Dishman
John Dix
Vicki Morris
Theresa Musgrove
Roger Tichborne

Back in Barnet - What have i missed?

Just walked in the door after 10 day on a cruise in the med and in Barcelona. What have I missed?

Having been in self imposed blog exile, I have much reading to do to catch up. Had a lovely cruise on NCL cruise lines on the Norwegian Epic. The possible higlight (as a Barnet blogger) was the guy who noticed my "Barnet Eye Bolloxvision" T-shirt (a present from my big sis for Xmas). He said "Are you anything to do with the Barnet Eye blog?". I replied "Yup, that's me". He went on to explain that he's the head of a Tory council & a good mate of Eric Pickles. When Pickles made his famous "Barnet bloggers" speech, every sane and rational Tory council in the land checked out why Pickles had picked on a Tory Council as an example of why bloggers are a force for good. Seems like they all hauled their CEO's in and said "Can this happen here?" (in reference to Metpro). It also seems like the response is "Nope, we run our affairs professionally, Barnet are a basket case".

Seems like they all think Barnet is a basket case. I won't embarrass my new found friend by divulging the details of what he said, but he confirmed something I'd been wondering. Yup, Barnet are a pariah council

Me and Eric

Today Eric Pickles lambasted Barnet Council over the Metpro fiasco. Not only that but Pickles recognised the fact that the local Tory administration have failed the people of Barnet and local residents action is the reason that the problems have been exposed. As one of the bloggers mentioned by Eric Pickles, it is important to state the case that you don't have to agree with someone to acknowledge they may be right about something. I'm sure Pickles would disagree with many of my views and vice versa. There does however come a point where petty disagreements have to be put to one side. The issues raised by Metpro are a good example.

My stats indicate that many people are reading this blog for the first (only??) time today.  If you are curious about "the blogs of Barnet", you really should know that we are nothing more than a group of residents who are not prepared to stand by and let our local council abuse their authority. We have found that writing blogs has given an effective focus for protests and we have raised many issues which the council would rather see hidden.

The most important thing we've done is we have exposed the issues that Barnet Council and their spin doctors would rather no one discussed. Sometimes that seems the most trivial thing in the world and sometimes it can seem rather important. As the failings of Barnet Council are now nationally recognised by a government minister who belongs to the same party, it is clear we've done our job rather well. That warrents a nice pint of guinness.

Dyslexic with the attention span of a gnat

Yup, that's me. Sometimes I'm intently watching something on the TV and there's a commercial break. I decide to go to the Toilet. When I've finished, I decide to make a cup of tea. Whilst the kettle is boiling, I check my emails. I get an email from an employee at Barnet Council and I start doing a bit of research. I find out that the issue is actually far worse than even they suspected and much of the info is public domain, which any organisation which performed a bit of due diligence would have spotted. I write a blog. Being dyslexic, this takes ages. I proof read it three times. By this time it is well past midnight, the family has gone to bed and I'm knackered.

It takes a toll. You end up tired and ratty. You ask yourself why you do it? You wonder if you are becoming obsessive, to add to the list of things wrong with your brain. You wonder if anyone gives a shit. This goes on for years and years. Then something like Metpro blows up. You feel vindicated. You feel that all the hard work may have some sort of payoff, that maybe, just maybe it has all been worth it and you might see a small change for the better, because the evidence is there in black and white. But ......

You realise that the people who allowed the mess to develop are still in place.

You realise that the people who need to sort the problem out aren't in the least bit interested in doing their job and making this happen.

So what do you do? You write to the Secretary of state responsible. You get no reply.

So what do you do then? You suddenly remember that maybe, just maybe, you have access to someone who can give him an almighty kick up his fat useless arse.

So what do you do then? Well that would be telling wouldn't it.

But if any of you have dyslexic kids, with the attention span of a gnat, don't get disheartened. One day your kids may do something vaguley useful. I just hope that unlike my parents, you live long enough to see that day.

On a completely different subject entirely. I'd really like to sit down and have a chat with the CEO of Barnet Nick Walkley and the Local Government secretary Eric Pickles. I'd like to know if maybe they'd be interested in organising a seminar on how bloggers can make a positive contribution to democracy and local government. I think Barnet provides and excellent example of how this can happen. Give us a bell chaps.

Just how useless is Eric Pickles?

Has there ever been a more useless minister than Eric Pickles? The local government secretary is possibly the worst minister ever to darken the doors of Parliament. Pickles claims to be a supporter of localism and empowering local communities to prevent abuse by council executives and dodgy councils. Anyone who has followed the Metpro crisis would know that this is probably the biggest scandal in local government in the UK.

We have sent several communications to Pickles. We have not even had an acknowledgement. Not only is this rude, but it is indicative of a secretary who doesn't want to know. Why? Because he supports the Easycouncil ideology of Barnet Council and so he doesn't want to see it's failings exposed. Has Pickles read the audit report? He damn well should. He may be all for privatisation, but if he is so evangelical in it's support that he doesn't want to know the pitfalls of such a policy, then he just isn't up to the job.

Localism can only work with checks and balances. If Barnet was a school, OFSTED would put it in special measures. As it stands, Pickles is a disgrace and his behaviour could cost David Cameron dear.

Barnet Council : Nick Walkley and the art of complete Bollocks

So what have Eric Pickles and the Prime Minister David Cameron got to do with the CEO of Barnet Council being named the 18th most important Londoner?

First check this link (if your computer lets you !)
http://www.lgcplus.com/Journals/3/Files/2011/4/11/LGC50%20Supplement.pdf

Guess who sponsors the award? BT (who stand to make lots of money from Outsourcing contracts with Barnet Council). Guess who was one of the Judges? Max Wide, who was on secondment from BT to work for Walkley in Barnet. I rather suspect that Walkley should be much higher than 18. After the Metpro Scandal, where Barnet paid £1.2 million to a security company which was operating illegally (Barnet hadn't bothered to check their accreditation) I expect the Government to do a wholesale review of how Councils manage contracts. That will be Mr Walkleys real legacy. Not the one he wanted though.

Here is some advanced warning.  The bloggers of Barnet have managed this in a co-ordinated campaign. First we raised awareness with local activists and blogs on the left and right who believe in honest and open government. Then we raised awareness of the press, to ensure maximum possible coverage.

The next phase which will start this weekend (if not before) is concerted effort to raise awareness of the Governement. This will be done via Eric Pickles and with a letter to David Cameron, handed in personally. Oh and we'll drop in on Nick Clegg on the way so he doesn't feel left out.

If they do nothing then the world will know that they are not interested in honesty, openness and proper administration. I want Barnet Council to be the last Council in the UK to behave in such a shoddy manner.

What is Eric Pickles really like? - Update 27/02/2011

I just read this blog. I've no idea if it is true or not, but as he's the local authorities minister, I'd suggest that you take a look.

http://nottheharrowtimes.blogspot.com/2011/02/how-ruthless-uncaring-tory-fat-twat.html

From our near neighbours in "Not The Harrow Times".

****** Updated 27/02/2011 ******  Following comments from Dan Hope and emails from readers of the blog, here is some extra info on the career of Eric Pickles. What I love about blogging is that we learn more about such figures as a result of these posts.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2011/feb/12/eric-pickles-local-government-cuts

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/eric-pickles-the-tory-heavyweight-1514541.html

Pickles Papers
http://www.1in12.com/publications/archive/thepicklespapers.html


I hope Dan agrees that these ARE SLIGHTY MORE CREDIBLE sources.

Eric Pickles Special : Thank you for listening to the Barnet Eye about transparent local Goverment

I wrote an open letter to Eric Pickles MP, the local Government Minister on Tuesday the 8th May. You can read it here  :-


http://barneteye.blogspot.com/2011/02/open-letter-to-secretary-of-state-eric.html

The final paragraph stated :-

The problems in Barnet could have been avoided by proper financial management and sound husbandry of taxpayers money, Transparency as implemented by Windsor and Maidenhead would go a long way to preventing Councils such as Barnet playing fast and loose with Taxpayers money. Whilst I agree with the concept of localism, it cannot possibly work if councils shroud themselves in secrecy. As such I urge you to use your powers to agree to meet Barnet Councils defecit, on condition that they appoint a new cabinet made up of people who actually know what they are doing. I would also insist on a fully open and transparent policy of management to be enacted to ensure that "difficult problems" cannot by hidden in the books in future.

It seems like Eric Pickles has got the message. There is a BBC report today which Pickles states the following

He said: "Fifty years ago, Margaret Thatcher changed the law to make councils open their meetings to the press and public. This principle of openness needs to be updated for the 21st Century. More and more local news comes from bloggers or citizen journalists telling us what is happening at their local council."Many councils are internet-savvy and stream meetings online, but some don't seem to have caught up with the times and are refusing to let bloggers or hyper-local news sites in." He added: "Opening the door  to new media costs nothing and will help improve public scrutiny." 

 It is nice when people actually listen to sensible advice. Pickles is right. People like me write blogs because we see that things could be improved. Most of us have things we'd rather do with our time, but are not prepared to see the Council, waste our cash, trash our services and treat us with disdain. Since the inception of the blog, I've bumped into many readers. After chatting for a while, I often hear the same thing "Until I started reading your blog I hadn't got a clue what the Council were up to". Here's a confession, neither had I. The sad thing is that in many ways, I still haven't.

Let me give you one small example of how bad things are. Have a look at this document on the Barnet Council website. It is a report for the One Barnet Overview an Scrutiny panel. There are many things which are amiss with the project, but have been "airbrushed" to look good. It's only when you get to page 24 and look at this table, you see how badly wrong it its going. Here is the income and expenditure table :-

Look at expenditure commitments - Forecast £983,000 - revised forecast £2,087.850 - in other words over 100% and over £1 million pounds over budget. Program management office. Forecast £148,280 - revised forecast £367,147 - nearly 150% over budget and well over £200,000 over budget. And how is it being financed?  From the contingency. The "LAA reward grant" (whatever that was) has disappeared, so it is yet more debt.

Future Shape has been running for three years and delivered no savings so far and cost millions. It is well over budget, as demonstrated here. What is the next milestone? (Bottom of page 23) - "Project plan with system build milestones to be finalised" - Yup, all this cash squandered, with no plan and no milestones. This is why it is so over budget.

This is why the Barnet Eye wrote to Eric Pickles. This is why Eric Pickles is right to urge openness and public scrutiny. This is your money they are wasting. The cash wasted on this could have kept several childrens centres open. It could have reduced your taxes. It could have saved the libraries of Barnet. Sadly your cash has just been squandered on waste of money consultants reports, with costs spiralling ever out of control.

That is why Barnet is having to make cuts. That is why we need to stop this blatent waste of our cash

An open letter to Secretary of State Eric Pickles regarding Lynne Hillans mismanagement of Barnet Finances

To: settlement.consult@communities.gsi.gov.uk

Cc: Harper, Cllr Andrew Conservative ; Hillan, Cllr Lynne Conservative ; Coleman, Cllr Brian Conservative

Sent: Tuesday, February 08, 2011 6:32 PM

Subject: FAO : Mr Lock & Rt Hon Eric Pickles MP Re Barnet Settlement

Dear Sirs,

 

I am writing to you as a Council Taxpayer in Barnet, a Business Rate payer and a long standing resident of the Borough. As I am sure you will be aware, the Leader of Barnet Council, Lynne Hillan wrote to you on the 17th January making the case for the Government to give Barnet additional funding, to meet its statuatory requirements. Whilst Councillor Hillan is correct to state that there is a massive shortfall in funding, she has been far less forthcoming about the causes of this. As the coalition government is keen to promote "Big Society" and engagement with local citizens, I felt it would be appropriate to give you a fair perspective on the background to the shortfall.

 

Barnet Council has quite demonstrably been mismanaged for the last 8 years by the incumbent Conservative administration. Borrowings have risen from £38 million in 2002 when they took over to a tad under £250 million today. Barnet council embarked on a reckless policy of borrowing money, to reinvest in schemes such as Iceland, which resulted in a total of £27.4 million being lost. On top of this capital amount, there was a budget shortfall due to the interest they expected to receive not being paid. I believe this figure to be in the region of £3.5 million. I am of the opinion that Councils should only borrow for capital projects with a verifiable return or short term bridging needs, under specific tight rules. Public sector employees lack the training and business skills to play the market in this way.

 

On top of this huge loss, Barnet Council also overspent £11 million on a bridge replacement project with an original budget of £12 million. This clearly demonstrated a complete lack of basic project management acumen. Another huge loss of £8 million has been incurred as a result of legal disputes with Catalyst, an outsourced supplier of care. As you can see, these sums alone add up to more than the shortfall Councillor Hillan has described. Let me just detail a few other areas where there has proven squandering of Taxpayers money.

 

* Approx £1 million on legal and other fees spent reopening Partingdale Lane to through traffic.

* Approx £1 million spent on legal and other fees regarding an inquiry into the botched sale of Barnet FC's ground

* £1.4 million on obsolete laptop computers, hundreds of which were immediately put into storage (with fully paid up warranties)

* The CEO salary for Barnet has risen from £114,000 per annum in 2002 up to £200,000 in 2010. Additionally several deputy directorships have recently been created with salaries in excess of £100,000 per annum

* A Council Tax freeze in 2010, despite the knowledge that the accounts were seriously in the red

* Huge rises in allowances for committee chairmen in June 2010, despite a pre election review being agreed at a lower rate

* Possibly up to £10 million spent/allocated for consultants reports etc, for the Future Shape/One Barnet project, with no savings delivered after 3 years of running the project

 

It appears that there are no qualifications required to run a Council, other than the endorsement of 51% of your political group on the council and an effective party whip. Councillor Hillan ran a company which went into liquidation in 2006, owing tens of thousands of pounds (much of it to the taxman). I would have thought that this would set alarm bells ringing within the local Conservative group, but they clearly feel she is the best qualified person for the job, having won two leadership contests.

 

Up and down the country, there are many well run councils of all political hues. I have been particularly impressed with the transparancy rules of Conservative Councils such as Windor and Maidenhead and believe this is a model for good governance. Sadly Barnet is at the opposite end of the scale. Recently details of Barnet Council invoices were published with details of payees redacted. This was done on the grounds that they were to private individuals. One such payment was later shown to be to a large waste disposal contractor.

 

Whilst I urge you to agree to a bale out of Barnet for the good of local services, I cannot possibly agree that money can be thrown at an authority as incompetent as Barnet Council without strings attached. In education, schools which fail are put into special measures. I believe that such legislation should also be available for failing councils. I would suggest that Barnet Council would be an excellent place to start. I would suggest that these measures are taken on explicit financial (not political) grounds and for a fixed period of time, to mend the budget. Councils should be able to avoid such measures by selecting a new team and enacting a suitable recovery plan.

 

The problems in Barnet could have been avoided by proper financial management and sound husbandry of taxpayers money, Transparency as implemented by Windsor and Maidenhead would go a long way to preventing Councils such as Barnet playing fast and loose with Taxpayers money. Whilst I agree with the concept of localism, it cannot possibly work if councils shroud themselves in secrecy. As such I urge you to use your powers to agree to meet Barnet Councils defecit, on condition that they appoint a new cabinet made up of people who actually know what they are doing. I would also insist on a fully open and transparent policy of management to be enacted to ensure that "difficult problems" cannot by hidden in the books in future.

 

Regards

Roger Tichborne

A Lib Dem Party Political Broadcast by Eric Pickles - Conservative MP

What on Earth is going on? I regularly check out many blogs and on my travels I came across one with this Youtube clip. It was made by the Conservative Party and features their campaign planner, MP Eric Pickles, making an impassioned plea for the Lib Dems.



The sad thing is that Mr Pickles doesn't even realise he's doing it. Forward the clip to 1.00 and listen to his description of how the electoral system works in the UK. At the last election, the Tories got 35.7% of the popular vote and 194 seats. Labour got LESS - 35.5% and got 286 seats.

Mr Pickles then goes on to explain that to get a majority, the Tories need to have a double digit lead over the Labour party. I hadn't realised that the Labour party had a 60 seat majority despite polling less votes than the Conservatives. However you look at it, a fairer system of voting would have meant that we didn't have a Blair/Brown government. The Tories have long stated that the "first past the post" system is "better". Does that mean that they think that a Gordon Brown majority would have been better?

I'm not an expert on voting reform, but until I saw Mr Pickles video, I'd never realised how unfair the system actually was. The only party who believe in reform of the voting system are the Lib Dems. Has it occurred to Mr Pickles that he's just made the best advert ever for the Lib Dems? Given the troughing which Tory MP's and their duck houses have been up to, is drawing attention to the fact that the whole system is dodgy a bright move? Yesterday, I detailed how the Lib dem candidate for Hendon, Mr Matthew Harris, may like to remind his Tory and Labour rivals of how they've cocked up Thameslink, the preferred method of commuting for many Hendon residents. I'd suggest that Mr Harris may also like to show any Tories he bumps into, Mr Pickles video, and explains to them that Mr Pickles thinks that a system that gave Blair/Brown a huge majority despite getting less votes than the Tories, is the way to run the country in the year 2010.