The Barnet Council Corporate Risk Register Analysis - Day 2- Waste Management and Sustainability

Today is day two of our review of the Barnet Council Corporate Risk register. This was released by Barnet Council and details all of the risks to economy and the quality of life in Barnet. All of the items on this risk register threaten one of both of these. The Barnet Eye believes that residents should be aware of the huge threats to the Borough, the causes and the steps Barnet Council are putting in place to mitigate them. We also give our readers our views on what should be happening.

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Waste Management and Sustainability:
Without consideration of alternative ways of improving recycling and changing behaviours around sustainability, costs will escalate in the future. Procuring value for money waste disposal and
managing waste collection services both need to be considered in order to ensure quality services at an affordable price delivering optimum customer satisfaction.

Cause:
 Failure to mitigate rising costs of waste disposal.

Consequence:
 Increasing costs to Council exacerbating budget pressures.

Preventative:
In-house delivery with stretch model underway for delivery October 2013. NLWA partnership

Detective:
Performance Indicators for recycling and customer satisfaction. Waste Project Board for oversight of delivery of plan. One Barnet Programme Management until Business as Usual phase

Impact     Probability    Rating
Major 4   Likely 4        High 16
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This is perhaps the risk most likely to cause a hefty Council Tax hike. All London Councils have issues with waste management, in this respect Barnet is not new unique. The question is how well Barnet have done, relative to other councils. What concerns me is this statement "Procuring value for money waste disposal and managing waste collection services both need to be considered in order to ensure quality services at an affordable price delivering optimum customer satisfaction. " This implies that the council have not been considering value for money when looking at these issues. They have not even been considered. Barnet has been aware for years of the escalating costs of dealing with waste management. The current administration has been running the show for 11 years. To find out that they have only just woken up to the fact that value for money waste management needs to be considered is beyond belief. 

Under the previous administration, A Labour/Lib Dem coalition, waste management was given a high priority. Recycling was brought in for the first time and huge strides were made to improve the service. Under the Tories in the 1980's, all bin collections were outsourced to private contractors. This was a disaster. Often waste wasn't collected and there were hundreds of cases of dustcarts bashing into cars and driving off. By the time  Lab/LD came in, they brought the service back in house, the Tories were privately relieved that this huge embarrassment had been dealt with. It is instructive that the in house waste collection service was rated as excellent. When the Tories considered outsourcing it again in 2012, some of the older councillors, remembering how the previous fiasco saw them booted out of office, dug their heels in and demanded retention of the in house service. 

Rubbish collection is probably the council service that most people are aware of. People are extraordinarily resistive to change. When the Council brought in the new recylcing contract and we all got the new brown and blue bins, many people contacted me suggesting I launch a campaign against the new service. I read up all of the papers and concluded that there wasn't much to criticise. Of course, I didn't have access to the confidential commercial papers and negotations. The fact that the risk register implies that ensuring  a quality service at an affordable price was not given primary consideration casts a whole new light on the issue. 

The Barnet Eye has not and will never oppose anything for the sake of it or simply to cause trouble for the council. There are enough real issues to raise, without inventing them or simply bashing the council for the sake of it. The risk register is the Councils own document and it couldn't be more clear that there is a problem. When your council tax goes up after the next election and the Council tells you it is down to the cost of waste management, you will know exactly who is to blame. This administration and their failure, over eleven years, to develop a coherent policy to deal with it. 

Press Release - Barnet Council risk register shows quality of life in Barnet at risk from right wing Council policies

Today the Barnet Eye sent the following press release to local and national news outlets, drawing attention to the shocking revelations in the Barnet Council risk register as detailed yesterday.

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Date 30th December 2013.

 

On the 16th December, Barnet Council published a risk register on the Council website. This report, tucked away in a pack of committee reports, details nine areas where the policies of the Council are putting the economic wellbeing, the quailty of life and the infrastructure of the Borough at risk. The report details nine significant areas of risk, brought about by Council policies.  The areas concerned are

 

Risk 1. Homelessness in Barnet.
Risk 2. Waste management and sustainability.

Risk 3. Demographic Change and Population growth.

Risk 4. Welfare and Benefit reform.

Risk 5. People. (Lack of competent staff following the One Barnet outsourcing program)

Risk 6. Financial Position.

Risk 7. Information Management.

Risk 8. Barnets position as a prosperous suburb.

All of the above risks are High or Medium High.

 

There is one further risk, which is "Medium Low",
Risk 9. Resident engagement.

 

You can view the risk register here http://barnet.moderngov.co.uk/documents/s12085/Appendix%20E%20-%20Corporate%20Risk%20Register.pdf

 

The Barnet Eye has given a commentary on these rsks at this site - http://barneteye.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/the-barnet-council-corporate-risk.html

 

It is clear from the risk register that the Council has failed in its duty of care to the people of Barnet and by admitting that all of the above areas are at significant risk, the Council has shown that the extreme right wing policies of the Conservative adminsitration are putting the prosperity of the London Borough of Barnet at risk. Even more worrying is the complete lack of a plan to mitigate these risks. The Council clearly released this report in the run up to Christmas, hoping that it would be missed in the excitement of the ferstive season.

 

The Barnety Eye believes that this is a major news story. There was widespread media coverage earlier in the year of Barnet Council claiming that the One Barnet program had transformed the finances of the Council and put the council on a sound financial basis. This report, prepared by the Council, exposes this a complete myth.

 

The Barnet Eye calls on all media outlets, local and naational, to investigate this issue and ensure that the dangers of persuing such ideologically driven policies is properly examined in the run up to the 2014 election. As the media are looking forward to 2014, we should be doing everything to inform about the risks we are facing.

 

Yesterday the Barnet Eye emailed every Councillor in the London Borough of Barnet for comment. We have had 27 read acknowledgements, but not a single response about the report.

 

Ends ++++++++++++++

The Barnet Council Corporate Risk Register -

Barnet Council has published its Corporate risk register. You can view it here -

http://barnet.moderngov.co.uk/documents/s12085/Appendix%20E%20-%20Corporate%20Risk%20Register.pdf

We've loaded it up onto our blog for your perusal. I must confess that reading this document is profoundly depressing. We live in what is perhaps Londons wealthiest Borough, at a time when the UK Economy is growing faster than the USA. Please have a look at the challenges facing us. Below I will give my commentary

  Barnet Council - Corporate Risk Register by Roger Tichborne

Risk 1. Homelessness in Barnet. The council concedes that this is set to rise. I work with a Homeless charity as a volunteer. I was disturbed to read the causes that the Council think cause homelessness. Although the reasons they list are factors, they completely misunderstand the main causes. There is no mention of family breakdown, mental illness, drug and alcohol abuse and migration issues are the main causes in Barnet. The fact that the council mentions none of these mean that the action plan they are developing is doomed to failure. I am shocked that the Council clearly haven't got a clue about the issue.


Risk 2. Waste management and sustainability. It is clear from the risk register that this has been allowed to get out of control and we are likely to have to see Council tax rises to deal with this mismanagement. The register states  "Procuring value for money waste disposal and managing waste collection services both need to be considered in order to ensure quality services at an affordable price delivering optimum customer satisfaction."  Now lets get this straight. The Tories have been running Barnet for eleven years, yet they have not considered sorting this out until now? This is truly scandalous. This is a truly horrendous admission by the Council.

Risk 3. Demographic Change and Population growth. The council has admitted that it is unprepared for population growth, despite having a corporate plan to increase the population of Barnet from 320,000 to 380,000. They are the people who have approved the Brent Cross, Stonegrove, Colindale, Mill Hill East etc developments and now they say they are unprepared for the consequences. This is scandalously incompetent.

Risk 4. Welfare and Benefit reform. What's this? Barnets Tory Council have admitted that the coalition policies are ill thought out and cause "unintended consequences". In the councils own words "Consequence: potential to negatively affect those economically disadvantaged within the community." I suppose it is good that the Tories in the Town Hall acknowledge that the Tories in Whitehall are dangerous to our community. The Good Lord only knows why the Labour Party in the Town hall have not mentioned this?

Risk 5. People. I had to chuckle when I saw this title. I though Barnet Council must be the only Council in the world which views people as a risk? What do they want? Daleks? Actually the risk is that they've got rid of all the people in the Council who know what they are doing, as a consequence of the One Barnet program. Now they have realised that they are up Le Creek de la Merde and they have mislaid the paddle. In their own words "Consequence: The consequence of failure in this respect and the escalation of risk will be a skills/knowledge/competence gap in the organisation that will result in poorer service performance in the medium term and/or longer term strategic failure."

Risk 6. Financial Position. It is clear that the council do not understand economics or maths. The narrative says "Demographic changes mean that the Council faces a growing population, an ageing population and increasing numbers of young people, which adds further to the pressure and demand on services." Firstly the population growth has been driven by their own planning policies. They were the ones with the grand masterplans to add 60,000 new residents. This growth is almost exclusively going to be made up of immigrants of working age and their children. All of the new rabbit hutch flats being thrown up around the Borough are not being put up for Barnet residents. There is no baby boom in Barnet, so it is clear that this population growth will be one fuelled by migratory labour. They are not council houses for local people. I am not anti immigration in the way UKIP are. The prosperity of the UK is built on immigration. The trouble is that Barnet Council have not understood the consequences of their plans. Mike Freer and Richard Cornelius are the men who have presided over this planning failure. It is entirely the responsibility of the political Leadership of Barnet Council.

Risk 7. Information Management. This is incredible. The Council admits it doesn't understand the data it holds or its sensitivity. It says "Cause: Variable accessibility and quality of data means we don’t know what information we hold, its value or sensitivity. " What does it plan to do about this? "Beginning to understand data sources and constraints on them". It is incredible that the Council can admit that it has only just identified the fact that it doesn't understand the data it holds and is only now beginning to try and get to grips with it".

Risk 8. Barnets position as a prosperous suburb. This is a truly incredible admission from the Conservatives after eleven years of mismanagement. They now admit that they have placed our prosperity at risk. The consequences of their policies? "Consequence:  Barnet becomes less desirable as a place to live and work "

All of the above risks are High or Medium High. The Conservatives have been in charge for eleven years and this is where their policies have brought us.

There is one further risk, which is "Medium Low",

Risk 9. Resident engagement. What does this mean? "Consequence: Consultations not contributing to service design, do not deliver the services resident want, lack of transparency on outcomes, customer satisfaction declines. " In effect, after five years of writing this blog, Barnet Council has admitted that we are right, they have failed to engage and consult residents properly. The reason we held the "Your Choice Barnet Week" was to highlight the fact that the Council weren't listening. If nothing else, at least they have admitted it.

What is interesting is the fact that there is not a single issue that this blog hasn't raised at length. I will be emailing this commentary to our local councillors for comment. As I said at the start of this blog, I am disturbed by this. In the past, my team of lovable Trolls have pointed out that a "risk register is only a document to identify what might happen". As far as I am concerned, if the risk is "High" or "Medium High". Of these nine risks, one is "almost certain", two are "likely" and the rest are "possible" (whatever that means). Note that Possible is not unlikely. I believe that there should be a full public consultation to try and sort out what has gone wrong. To me, this document is a tale of corporate failure and mismanagement. If you are a Barnet resident, please read this document. The council have clearly released it during the holiday season to try and make sure we didn't see it whilst the mulled wine and mince pies were doing their work. Of course they failed to recognise the fact that when people are off work, they have more time to read blogs !