The privatisation of Barnet Council

Click this link - http://onebarnet.co.uk/ - You will get a web page with the Barnet Council on top, a message from the CEO - Nick Walkley and the following text at the bottom of the page

Registered office: 71 Victoria Street, Westminster, London, SW1H OXA Registered in England. A part of the Capita Group Plc. Veredus 2009.

 
Has Barnet Council been taken over by Capita? Apart from the detail at the bottom, there is nothing on this website to indicate that it is anything other than an official Barnet Council website.

Here is an extract from the One Barnet page on this website

Next Steps – A ‘One Barnet’ Approach

We have already acknowledged that Barnet residents deserve and expect high quality, efficient public services. As a council, we accept that we are not best placed to deliver everything. These services will be delivered more effectively, efficiently and with greater quality by our public sector partners but also in the private and third sector.

Interestingly, they've also just signed a deal with Brent Council

http://www.capita.co.uk/media/Pages/LondonBoroughofBrentsigns%C2%A315millioncontractwithCapitatoadministerrevenuesservice.aspx

The Capita/Brent Council press release announces the following :-

Capita will be helping the Council to improve processes and support the objectives of its ‘One Council’ programme which is designed to deliver value for money while ensuring excellent service delivery. 

Just in case you didn't realise, Brent Council is a Labour Council. Different Council, different party running it, same old bullshit.


Oh and by the way, Capita set up the OneBarnet website in 2009. Guess how much money has been saved with the One Barnet program in the intervening two years?

Barnet and Brent - Next Door Neighbours - Different worlds ?

Us lucky citizens of Barnet used to look smugly across to our West at Brent Council. We used to laugh smugly as Private Eye labelled them "Bent Council". Back in 2002 when the Tories took Barnet Council from Lib/Lab coalition, the Barnet Council Tax was hundreds of pounds a year less. Look what the Tories in Barnet have done.

2010 Council Tax Bands
Brent Band D Council Tax - £1368
Barnet Band D Council Tax - £1423

Brent Council hasn't been featured all over local and national press recently. The councillors there just get on with doing their job. They actually give the impression they care. One blog I follow is that of CouncillorShafique Choudhary, a Labour Councillor for Barnhill ward in Brent. Unlike Barnet Tories, Shafique likes to keep his voters informed of what he's up to. He does this by writing a blog (a free one). In his latest post, he mentions his attendence of the Barnet Planning meeting on Thursday - What he says is quite saddening - http://barnhill-newdawn.blogspot.com/2010/07/different-world.html -

I reproduce in full what he had to say :-

Last night I attended yet another Barnet Planning Committee regarding the Brent Cross Development. What a contrast between the planning committee methods in Barnet and Brent! It seems, in spite of the neighbourhood proximity, the two borough are a thousand miles apart.

I felt proud being a councillor in Brent, not a “yes” robot in Barnet

Now you will notice that Shafique doesn't try and score party points. He just says that the whole system is broken. I left a comment on Shafiques blog saying I thought it was a bit unfair on our local Labour and Lib Dem councillors who I think are pretty good and most certainly not "Yes Robots".  The bottom line though, is that Lynne Hillan has transformed Barnet Council into a joke authority. If I had said twenty years ago that in a few years Brent Labour councillors would be publicly gloating about the ineptitude and stupidty of the Barnet Tories and everyone across the board would agree, you'd have thought I was bonkers. These days it is the Brent Councillors who hold their head high and walk with pride, whilst Barnets Tories skulk in the shadows, bottle out of Residents forums and only come out for free dinners at the expense of other people.

Lynne Hillan is trying it on !

There was a rather revealing letter in todays Daily Telegraph from a selection of Conservative Council Leaders, including Lynne Hillan. It says :-

Keeping council tax down

SIR – As leaders of Conservative local authorities, we are sick of hearing Labour ministers crowing about how they have helped keep council tax down this year.

Readers should be aware that we have managed to keep taxes low in our authorities despite the efforts of John Denham and his department.

Labour red tape has led to the unprecedented council tax increases since 1997.

The average increase is so low this year through a combination of two factors. First, Conservative authorities have been committed, as always, to efficient and low-cost public services. Second, with every passing year, more high-tax Labour councils are failing at the ballot box.

What Lynne Hillan neglects to mention is that the Conservatives took over at Barnet Council in 2003. Then the council tax was lower than the National Average and much lower than Brent Council next door. This year it is higher than the National Average and Higher than Brent Council. What is the difference between Brent Council & Barnet Council. Well for a start the Leader of Brent Council is a Liberal Democrat called Paul Lorber and the Lib Dems control the Council.

Now I'm sure some of the Conservative Council Leaders who have signed the letter have done a fine job and are competent administrators. I just think that given the record of Conservatives on Barnet Council, who have made Council tax payers look enviously West towards Brent (who would have believed that a few years ago), they should never have allowed Lynne Hillan to hijack their letter or associate themselves with low Council taxes. The Conservatives in Barnet have nothing at all to teach anyone about running a council efficiently.

Brent Vs Barnet

Band	Brent	Barnet	Difference
A	£912.51	£948.84	£36.33
B	£1,064.59	£1,106.79	£42.20
C	£1,216.68	£1,264.91	£48.23
D	£1,368.76	£1,423.02	£54.26
E	£1,672.93	£1,739.25	£66.32
F	£1,977.10	£2,055.48	£78.38
G	£2,281.27	£2,371.70	£90.43
H	£2,737.52	£2,846.04	£108.52

I asked a promenant Local Conservative for a comment recently. His response "Erm, er, are you sure?" Yes I am - CLICK HERE FOR BARNETS FIGURES and then CLICK HERE FOR BRENTS FIGURES. If you think you are voting Conservative in the Council Elections for low tax, think again. High Council TAx in Barnet isn't the fault of the Labour Government. It is the fault of a useless Conservative Council, who blame everyone but themselves for the problems.

Lynne Hillans biggest Porkie

This article, on the front page of the press finishes with a statement from Lynne Hillan :- "This has no effect on council tax because it's nothing to do with the revenue budget"  - When the Tories took power in Barnet, they put Council tax up by 24%. The reason? Because they said there was a £10 hole in the reserves. Was a £10 million "hole in the reserves" anything to do with the revenue budget? Last time there was a supposed £10 Million hole in the reserves, the Tories put up council tax by 24%. They won't this year because it's an election year and Hillan would rather slash and burn than tell us the truth and plug the hole.  Victor Lyon was the Tory leader who enacted the 24% rise, he claimed at the time that it would be a one off. He claimed that the Tories would transform the Tories into a "low tax council". In 2008 the Hendon Times reported that 5 years of Tory rule had resulted in 44% rises.

However much Council Leader Lynne Hillan bleats, the truth is that in 2003 when the Tories took power the London Borough of Barnet had a lower Council tax than the London Borough of Brent.

Brent Council - Council Tax - Band D 2003/4 - £1075.05

Barnet Council - Council Tax - Band D 2003/4 - £796.89

Brent Council - Council Tax - Band D 2003/4 - £1368.76

Barnet Council - Council Tax - Band D 2003/4 - £1423.02

You may also be interested to know that Barnet Council Tax is now above the national average (£1414). Brent is lower. So you may ask. What is the difference between the administration in Brent and the administration in Barnet. Well as a Lib Dem, I'd like to point out that a Lib Dem Council has kept tax down in Brent. If Barnet had the same Council tax increase as Brent over the period (27%), we'd all be paying £1012.05 per annum - over £400 less.

Can I tell you why Brent has done so much better than Barnet? Because the Councillors running Brent Council do their job properly. Brent Council used to be so badly run that it was nicknamed "Bent Council" by Private Eye. Sadly now it's Barnet which has become a "Barmy Council". Who pays for this extravagance? You and me, my friend.

They ask questions when Council officers demand more money. They understand the fact that if you lose £9 million, it has to be paid for out of your tax. I daresay that a Barnet Conservatives will come up with all manner of excuses when asked about this, but at the end of the day you are paying over £400 a year more than you should. That is the bottom line. That is a difficult fact that the Tories running Barnet do not want you to know.

(Hat Tip to Not the Barnet Times for the picture of the Press)