Illiterate Barnet - An update

This morning I posted a blog detailing the difficulties Barnet Council have writing in English. I thought that the fact that people on highly paid jobs do not seem capable of writing even the most simple sentence as part of their job, warranted proper consideration by Barnet Council.

It seems Barnet Council disagree. Here is there reply. I've redacted the name of the Council officer charged with telling me, because at The Barnet Eye we don't believe in shooting the messenger. Of course you may think that acceptance of such shoddy work by the Council is acceptable. Please leave a comment if you do, explaining your reasons as I'd love to know. Here's what Barnet had to say.

It seems you can't ask for the cabinet of Barnet Council to ensure staff are properly trained, it isn't their responsibility ????. Lord help us all !!!!

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Dear Mr Tichborne,

Thank you for your question for Monday’s Cabinet meeting.

Your question will be accepted subject to your agreement to delete the paragraphs struck through below.  These paragraphs constitute separate questions concerning:

-          staff training, which is a matter for the General Functions Committee; and

-          the performance of individual officers, for which the appropriate route for raising complaints or concerns is through the council’s corporate complaints procedure.

The final paragraph is accepted, but constitutes a separate question and has been amended as such to reflect the above deletion.

With your agreement of the below changes, the question will be considered at Cabinet.

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In the cabinet report concerning the Community Library Process - http://committeepapers.barnet.gov.uk/democracy/reports/reportdetail.asp?ReportID=11018, Section 9.12 (page 401) states

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"Officers met with representative of the Save Friern Barnet Library Group on 8/2/2012 to explain the council’s position in relation to the unaffordable nature of their proposal and that the Library will move to the Arts Depot. In relation to the possibly of a community library in the area, discussions are still on-going. A further verbal update may be provided at the meeting if required."

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I initiated a petition which collected over 7,000 signatures, from people wishing to preserve Barnets libraries. This was included as part of the submissions for th strategic library review. At the relevant Council meeting, I requested that Councillor Robert Rams keep me informed of all developments with regards to the process and closure of the libraries. I stated that I would feed back all information to the people who signed the petition.

Since this commitment was made, Councillor Rams has failed to provide a single update. I now read in the papers that the proposal by the "Save Friern Library" group was deemed "unaffordable". Please can you provide the following :-

A) An explanation as to what "unaffordable" means? Please specify exactly what sum is required to make the proposal "affordable".

B) A breakdown of all help and support given to Friern Library Group by Barnet Council, in relation to their proposal.

I have been a long term supporter of Barnets libraries on the grounds that they support literacy and education. I wish to also place on record my disgust at the appalling grammar and mangling of the English language in paragraph 9.2 and other sections of this report. As a dyslexic (please excuse my appalling written English) who couldn't read until aged 10, I am only too aware of the importance of literacy. I deplore such use of English in an official council paper and can only conclude that this indicates a total disregard for good grammar and use of English within Barnet Council. I formally ask Barnet Council to launch a programme of education for all staff writing official reports, to ensure that they understand the basics of the English language. It is quite ironic that such appalling English appears in a document which spells the death knell for a library. Even more worrying was the fact that at the bottom of the page it says :-

Finance: MC/JH

Legal: HP/CH

This implies that two people from the finance team and two people from the legal team read this paragraph and signed it off as acceptable. What possible faith can this give us in quality of work performed by  the Barnet Council finance and legal teams as the Council is in the process of drawing up contracts worth hundreds of millions of pounds as part of the One Barnet project?

Did the Cabinet Member responsible read the paper prior to issuance and what is his opinion of the grammar and use of English in the above mentioned paragraph 9.2?

With many thanks,

J****** W******
Business Governance Manager

Corporate Governance DirectorateLondon Borough of Barnet, North London Business Park, Oakleigh Road South, London N11 1NP
Tel: 020 8359 2***

Mobile: 07*** 7** ***
Barnet Online: www.barnet.gov.uk
P please consider the environment - do you really need to print this email?

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From: Williams, Jeremy
Sent: 16 February 2012 10:28
To: Roger Tichborne
Subject: RE: Question for Cabinet Meeting on 20th Feb

Dear Mr Tichborne,

Confirming receipt of your question.

With many thanks,

Jeremy Williams
Business Governance Manager

Corporate Governance DirectorateLondon Borough of Barnet, North London Business Park, Oakleigh Road South, London N11 1NP
Tel: 020 8359 2042
Mobile: 07949 753 721
Barnet Online: www.barnet.gov.uk
P please consider the environment - do you really need to print this email?

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From: Roger Tichborne 

Sent: 15 February 2012 23:30
To: W*****, J******
Cc: Rams, Cllr Robert Conservative; Cornelius, Cllr Richard Conservative; Walkley, Nick
Subject: Question for Cabinet Meeting on 20th Feb

Dear Mr Williams

I have a question for the cabinet regarding the communities library program.

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

In the cabinet report concerning the Community Library Process - http://committeepapers.barnet.gov.uk/democracy/reports/reportdetail.asp?ReportID=11018, Section 9.12 (page 401) states

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

"Officers met with representative of the Save Friern Barnet Library Group on 8/2/2012
to explain the council’s position in relation to the unaffordable nature of their proposal
and that the Library will move to the Arts Depot. In relation to the possibly of a
community library in the area, discussions are still on-going. A further verbal update
may be provided at the meeting if required."

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

I initiated a petition which collected over 7,000 signatures, from people wishing to preserve Barnets libraries. This was included as part of the submissions for th strategic library review. At the relevant Council meeting, I requested that Councillor Robert Rams keep me informed of all developments with regards to the process and closure of the libraries. I stated that I would feed back all information to the people who signed the petition.
Since this commitment was made, Councillor Rams has failed to provide a single update. I now read in the papers that the proposal by the "Save Friern Library" group was deemed "unaffordable". Please can you provide the following :-
A) An explanation as to what "unaffordable" means? Please specify exactly what sum is required to make the proposal "affordable".
B) A breakdown of all help and support given to Friern Library Group by Barnet Council, in relation to their proposal.
I have been a long term supporter of Barnets libraries on the grounds that they support literacy and education. I wish to also place on record my disgust at the appalling grammar and mangling of the English language in paragraph 9.2 and other sections of this report. As a dyslexic (please excuse my appalling written English) who couldn't read until aged 10, I am only too aware of the importance of literacy. I deplore such use of English in an official council paper and can only conclude that this indicates a total disregard for good grammar and use of English within Barnet Council. I formally ask Barnet Council to launch a programme of education for all staff writing official reports, to ensure that they understand the basics of the English language. It is quite ironic that such appalling English appears in a document which spells the death knell for a library. Even more worrying was the fact that at the bottom of the page it says :-
Finance: MC/JH
Legal: HP/CH
This implies that two people from the finance team and two people from the legal team read this paragraph and signed it off as acceptable. What possible faith can this give us in quality of work performed by  the Barnet Council finance and legal teams as the Council is in the process of drawing up contracts worth hundreds of millions of pounds as part of the One Barnet project?
Did the Cabinet Member responsible read the paper prior to issueance and what is his opinion of the grammar and use of English in the above mentioned paragraph?
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I have copied the leader of the Council, CEO  and the cabinet member for Libraries into this communication. I trust they will take immediate and appropriate action to ensure that if nothing else, reports are written in decent English. Surely this is not too much to expect from a Council which claims to be Conservative and well run.
Barnet Council has suffered from many financial losses recently due to lack of attention to detail. This report shows that this is still an endemic problem within the council
Regards
Roger Tichborne