Abuse of position? Part 4

Well, not content with having at least one parking ticket cancelled it looks rather like Cllr Dean Cohen is on a roll and trying to prevent any more parking tickets from being issued in certain areas on 15 further dates.

Mr Mustard wonders why Cllr Dean Cohen doesn't just advise everyone affected to follow the times of each zone and to park their car legally before the holiday starts and then collect it afterwards? rather than use his position as a councillor in this way.

Now let us equate being unable to move your car for religious reasons to being unable to pay for your parking because you do not have a mobile phone and/or debit/credit card.

Do the council give you any leeway whatsoever for this? No they don't.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Follow my leader ( into obscurity? )

Follow My Leader

This game is widely played among the Indian tribes, particularly by the boys, and also by the girls. The Leader improvises the steps and the movements, which all who follow must repeat and keep time to the song. The song here given is traditional in the Omaha tribe. It has been handed down from one generation of young folk to another—for how many, "nobody knows."

The Game

A Leader is chosen, and all who join in the game must go where he goes, dance as he dances, move the arms, hands and feet as he does. The skipping and dancing must be in exact time with the song that all must sing. The game gives opportunity for fancy steps, winding, intricate figures, "cutting capers" and merry pranks.

Song

Follow my Leader where'er he goes;

What he'll do next, nobody knows.

Mr Mustard doesn't only point out shortcomings at the Council; he likes also to be helpful and to write to officers and councillors suggesting money-saving and/or face-saving ideas and in the case of the Leader, Cllr Richard Cornelius, the opportunity for him to show some leadership on what has turned out to be a very controversial measure; "cashless parking". That is an idea which is fine in principle but flawed in practice especially when sledgehammered into being rather than slowly & subtly drifted into place as times change. It is an example of how the populace are expected to bend to the will of the council whereas the council proclaim that they are Putting the Community First. You are allowed a hollow laugh at that phrase.

Given that the tendering procedure for the removal of the parking meters has not been properly carried out it should be run again and RM Countryside Ltd would be well advised not to kick up a fuss bearing in mind that they get the vast majority of their work from the council ( in contravention of the Constitution ).

So Mr Mustard will now share with you his short exchange of emails with the Leader Cllr Cornelius ( verbatim except that as usual Mr Mustard has been substituted for my real name )

The email subject was "How to be a Hero"


Friday, 2 December 2011

Dear Councillor Cornelius

Are you fed up with hearing about parking payment problems? Almost everyone is.

You are the Leader. You can fix this mess. Look at New York

Look at that lovely parking meter that takes cash and cards. Parkeon are one of the suppliers to Barnet Council.

Has anyone asked Parkeon if the current machines, which appear to be modular in design, can be adapted. I'll bet they can. Sure it will cost a few quid but £80,000 is being spent on removing and scrapping some perfectly good working machinery.

You will still need to employ some cash collection officers but, as more and more people use cards because it is convenient when the slot is there next to them ( like in Westminster as well as New York )the need to empty the meters so often will diminish.

Have you looked at Big Society ways of dealing with the machines? How about having a team of shop-keepers in each location to empty them each day? A small commission to the traders for providing that service or placed in a special fund to improve their town centre?

There must be a better way than the current one which has been poorly thought out and is being badly implemented.

So, what is it to be? Hero or Zero?

Yours sincerely

Mr Mustard

---

Sunday, 4 December 2011

Dear Mr Mustard,

Thank you for your email.  I do not think that there is any future in the machines and now that we are developing the scratchcard option I feel that a lot of the objections to the pay by phone system will disappear.

Richard Cornelius

---

The next email had a small change in title. It was "How not to be a hero"

Monday 5 December 2011

Dear Cllr Cornelius

Thank you for your short reply which is very disappointing.

I have seen the 4 page wraparound on the Barnet Times. I see that there will now be 2 voucher values available, £1 for 30 minutes and £2 for 1 hour which can be used in multiples to purchase more parking time. That may well be fine in the 1 hour zones ( if you have planned in advance and don't mind paying £8 for possibly your one and only visit to the borough of Barnet ) but here in High Barnet where the hours are from 8am to 6.30pm a visitor without a mobile telephone will need to purchase 10 one hour vouchers and a 30 minute voucher if they need to stay all day which at face value is £21. That will in effect mean that they will need to buy 12 ( 3 packs of four ) vouchers at £2 = £24 whereas in the Stapylton Rd car park the maximum daily charge is £5. ( Only 20m away in Strafford Rd the daily charge is, strangely, £7 )

If you went to the pub ( I don't know if you drink but please bear with me ) and ordered a round and the barman said "you have to pay by credit card for that round sir, this is a cashless bar, the charge is £7" and you said "oh sorry, I am afraid I haven't got my credit card on me" and the barman then said "that's all right sir, we take drinks vouchers which you buy on-line from the council in books of 4 at £2 each; however the cash price for your round is £21 so that will be £24 of vouchers you need to buy", I think you would leave and find a bar in another town. Please feel free to tell me that I am completely wrong.

Yours sincerely

Mr Mustard

---

Mr Mustard isn't expecting to hear anything else as Cllr Cornelius has made his mind up, or had it made up for him? He says he listens but then he doesn't act. Not much point in listening then, is there?

Shopkeepers; you can act. If this man comes into your shop please double, treble or quadruple your prices.

Happy days; thinking of his free park anywhere in Barnet permit

What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. 

Have fun.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Guest blog from Nutsville.com

It seems that other blogs have an even better handle on Barnet Council than Mr Mustyard who is such a slacker that he took 5 days off and all hell broke loose and so he can do no better than reprodocue the blog from nutsville.com who feature as one of Mr Mustard's favourite blogs.

Barnet Council told to withdraw parking services tender or face EU Commission investigation

Brian Coleman

Shameless expense claimant Barnet’s very own Brian Coleman, who became infamous for boasting that his council never knowingly undercharges for parking has been caught by Nutsville investigators illegally pushing through a lucrative contract deal.

In a forced through decision Brian Coleman has managed to breach Barnet Councils Constitution, break the Public Contract Regulations 2006 directly violate EU public procurement law leaving Barnet taxpayers facing having to pay more for their services than they do now.

Coleman was branded a bully boy by his own Tory backbenchers when last August he used delegated powers to continue using Paypoint’s Verrus subsidiary to provide a borough wide Pay-by-Phone service. (Download delegated powers report here) Concerns were raised by fellow Councillors that with all of the boroughs pay and display machines being ripped out there would be no adequate alternative for motorists who either could not or would not pay using a mobile phone and credit card.

But Coleman had never made a secret of his intention to follow Westminster Council’s lead by going down the cashless parking road when in October 2010 he said “We are going completely cashless. It’s a common sense modern approach to parking. It works perfectly well in Westminster”. Coleman is in such admiration of Westminster Council’s pay-by-phone cashless parking model that he’s even forced his council to use the same contractor as Westminster, Verrus.

Great fanfare was made about how going cashless would save Barnet taxpayers money. But by not seeking the best fees for its outsourced services it will end up costing taxpayers more, a lot more. Alarm bells sounded when Coleman sneaked the contract award through when many of Barnet’s councillors were on holiday.

In 2008 Barnet Council undertook a trial between two pay-by-phone companies just in their car parks. The costs involved were of minimal value so did not exceed the EU threshold to trigger a tendering exercise.  In 2009 Barnet decided they were going to go with Verrus and awarded them a low value contract in accordance with their procurement code. That contract was for two years, supposedly ending in March 2011. 

In June 2010 Barnet had rolled out pay-by-phone on to the streets of Barnet, making the contract more lucrative to Verrus.  But from around March this year payments from Barnet to Verrus really shot up as the Council took out more of its pay and display machines, leaving Verrus as the only game in town for motorists.

From March until August this year Barnet Council have paid Verrus more than £86,000, which would put their projected spend at over £200,000 expressly in violation of EU legislation and the EU threshold limit of £156,000. Brian Coleman must have been aware he was acting illegally as he even went against Barnet’s own Contract Procedure Rules (page 129 Table 5-2 Acceptance thresholds for contract extensions and variations Greater than £156,422 Authority must be sought).

You would have though that over two years would have been long enough for  Barnet Council to have done a proper legal fair tendering process for the Pay-by-Phone contract, unless they didn’t want to for some reason. Coleman even allowed Verrus to operate in Barnet without any contract in place as their original contract expired in March of this year (2011).

Now Coleman is tendering for a consortium to outsource the whole of the parking service, in the meantime allowing Verrus to continue invoicing Barnet until Coleman’s new super contract worth upwards of £25M is awarded. The new super contract described as a framework contract is asking for a group of up to five operators to form a consortium with one operator acting as lead operator dealing directly with Barnet Council.

The problem with tendering for a consortium instead of say putting out individual services as lots, is that it favours just one economic operator, Verrus. Other pay-by-phone providers don’t have relationships with parking enforcement contractors such as NSL for example, who just happen to provide parking enforcement for Westminster Council, along side Verrus.

Questions need to be asked as to why Brian Coleman is favouring this particular provider. Nutsville understands this matter is to be brought to the attention of the District Auditor and the Efficiency Reform Group of the Cabinet Office formerly the Office of Government Commerce.

The OJEU tender notice 2011/S 67-109281 published on 4th April 2011 for the outsourced parking services is in direct violation of EU public procurement law and Nutsville understands if this notice is not cancelled a complaint will be lodged with the EU Commission.

What Coleman should have done to avoid being caught with his pants round his ankles is to have tendered for a pay-by-phone provider under the normal EU process and then done a separate tendering exercise for the parking enforcement contract.

Brian has it in hand ! or does he?

Mr Mustard does not sit around keeping his ideas to himself. If Mr Mustard thinks there is something which will improve the borough then he tells the person who can make a difference. Hence the below exchange on cashless parking which may be of interest to the two backbench councillors who are, according to a tweet from The Barnet Bugle, to make new proposals for parking. They may be knocking at an open door?

---

To: Coleman, Cllr Brian Conservative

Sent: Fri Apr 15 12:28:18 2011

Subject: Cashless parking

Dear Councillor Coleman

I understand why you want to move the Borough to cashless parking and also why many people want to continue to pay using the universal medium of cash. 

The two separate camps could be easily reconciled.

Most of the CPZ zones have local shops in them. If parking vouchers which looked like the current visitor vouchers were available in the shops then Barnet Council could sell them in bulk to shopkeepers and pay in advance by credit card. Thus the Council would be cashless for on-street parking.

Motorists could still use cash to buy parking time ( there really are people without mobile phones and credit or debit cards you know ) and they could buy a stock of cards in advance if they are regular visitors to the Borough which would save them time and give the Council improved cashflow.

Local shops are struggling and this would give them a useful extra income stream from a, say, 5% commission deducted from the face value of the card.

I think that you personally would generate some useful positive publicity for the Borough if you were to introduce this additional way of paying.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

---

The reply as ever was not overly long.

From: Coleman, Cllr Brian Conservative [mailto:Cllr.B.Coleman@barnet.gov.uk]
Sent: Friday, April 15, 2011 1:00 PM
To: Mr Mustard
Subject: Re: Cashless parking

Thank you

Already in hand !

---

Four months later when Mr Mustard didn't see any sign of activity on this score, in fact the very opposite the proposed removal of pay & display machines, he wrote on 11 August

Dear Mr Coleman

I refer to your email of 15 April 2011. 

I rather thought that by now I would have seen some sort of announcement by the council about this idea of mine of parking vouchers and given the current focus on regenerating High Streets this idea would be timely.

Is the idea going ahead please and if so, when can I expect to see an announcement?

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Since which time there has been radio silence. Mr Mustard thinks that Cllr Coleman is in fact in favour of accepting other methods of payments, ones which don't involve the council in accepting cash, but allow customers to use cash, and is still working out how to effect this transformation. Hopefully with the help of the two backbenchers he will be able to work it out.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard