Capita ! - The Movie - Day zero is tomorrow

So the dust has settled. Barnet Council have signed the contract with Capita and the process of exporting jobs from Barnet and handing over our personal details, bank records, Council Tax payment details, business licensing details, planning applications etc to a multinational Private company with a chequered past, data breaches etc begins.

Last year the Barnet Eye produced two films to highlighting the problems facing the Borough. In many ways the London Borough of Barnet has ceased to exist. Now we are the "The London Borough of Barnet - A subsidiary of Capita PLC".

Having made two films about the old Borough, we now embark on the process of making a third. This is about our new lords and masters - Capita. We will call it Capita ! - The Movie. This, like the previous two films is an independent production. Putting such a movie together is an expensive and time consuming process. Staging a premier is also costly, if the plan is to keep the costs down.

The previous two films received national exposure. The new film promises to be even more important. Many Boroughs and public services are at risk of being flogged off to organisations like Capita. It is only fair and democratic that people know what this means. Wheras a leaflet run may reach a couple of hundred people, a Movie can reach far more. That is why we have decided on this course of action.

The Barnet Eye is reaching out to everyone in the Borough who cares. We are asking businesses to consider buying advertising on this site to help fund the costs of producing the film (with expenses, advertising, prinitng of DVD's & travel around the country we estimate that £8,000 is a very conservative budget). To raise this is simple. We are asking for 8 businesses to commit to spend £100 pounds for ten months to have their advert on the side of this blog. This is something of a bargain as we get 30-40,000 hits a month and the vast majority are from local people. We will put a link to your website and you can have any image you like displayed. We will also commit to regularly tweeting your business as one to use.

The Barnet Eye is a unique blog in many ways. It has a huge readership for a blog about local issues. It has had over 1 million hits and has broken many key news stories. We heavily subsidised the first two films we made, but the lack of budget constrained what we could do. For a subject as broad as Capita ! - The Movie, we need to travel and we need better production values. We aim to have the film finished in November with a premier in January.

We also invite donations from local people who wish to participate. This is a major undertaking. Producing the first two films was a major commitment, but we learned many lessons. It is vital that Capita are aware that they will be under scrutiny. The Barnet Eye is going to be at the forefront of this campaign and you can be part of the process.

Please note that this film will be a completely independent production. Whatever the final form of it takes is what myself and the Director deem suitable. As with the previous films, it will be approximately 30 minutes long. We will seek experts, people from around the country who have experienced the process of outsourcing and Capita themselves. We intend to investgate their record and to get to the bottom of what the people of Barnet can expect. In May next year, there is a Council election in Barnet. We intend to make everyone in Barnet know exactly what the adminstration of Barnet Council have signed them up for.

If you wish to join in and participate let us know. If you wish to advertise, click the email link and tell us. Please tell your friends about this project. If they run businesses, encourage them to be one of the glorious eight advertisers. For the duration of the funding period, we will remove all other advertising etc from the blog (ie Google Adwords).

Thank you for your support for this blog.


Roger Tichborne
WWW.BARNETEYE.BLOGSPOT.COM