Consultations by government

Electronic Collar Manufacturers v SS for Environment 24 Oct 2019 by MisterMustard on Scribd

The consultation process has a chequered history in Barnet and Mr Mustard thought you might find the above judgment of interest if you are looking at any consultation that Barnet Council decide upon in the future. It is a long read, there being 222 paragraphs, but Mr Mustard thinks you can skip some of it and he suggests you focus on paragraphs 3, 18, 27 and then read from 139 to the end but by all means read it all if you like this sort of thing.

The summary at para 27 is a good outline to have in your mind from the off.

Enjoy this bedtime reading. If you think Barnet Council have failed in any future consultation please consult a solicitor who is an expert in local government law.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Barnet Alliance for Public Services - 1 July 2013

BARNET ALLIANCE FOR PUBLIC SERVICES

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 

Monday 1st July, 7 pm 
Greek Cypriot Centre Britannia Road N12 9RU 

This will be an opportunity to join BAPS as a member or renew the membership and contribute to the community campaign to defend and improve public services in Barnet. 

The business part of the AGM will be followed by a talk by Gerald Shamash,  Maria Nash's solicitor in her Judicial Review: 

'One Barnet' - A Council On Trial 

Refreshments provided

Traver's talks

There is a museum dedicated to Magritte in Brussels which friends of Mr Mustard have just been to & he would like to visit. He hasn't seen Andrew Travers in a bowler hat but it is what senior civil servants used to wear years ago. Now to what Andrew has just sent to the staff (do they all know who he is?) about the JR along with, in red, Mr Mustard's comments.

From: First Team
Sent: 10 June 2013 10:55
To: AllStaff
Subject: Judicial Review update

The First Team update on Tuesday set out the provisional dates set for the Appeal Court hearings of 7 and 8 October. True.

Since then we have continued to explore with the Court whether those dates could be brought forward, but so far to no avail. What I haven't told you is that Maria Nash's lawyers have been available since they submitted the appeal and it is the council's QC Monica Carrs-Frisk who is busy on another trial so the delay is entirely down to the council's decision to stick with her. 

We are looking at the possibility of instructing a new QC in the hope that could lead to an earlier date for a hearing, although this is still dependent on the Court listing. A new QC won't lead to any consultations being found as they don't exist.

We remain confident that permission to appeal will not be allowed and that the benefits to our residents will be delivered. Is it possible to read the mind of appeal Court judges with their superior brain power and extensive legal knowledge? This is guesswork or possibly based upon the advice of Trowers & Hamlins who would say that wouldn't they.

When this is confirmed we will sign the NSCSO contract. A.s.a.p.

The transfer of staff to Capita would take place shortly after. We can't get rid of staff quickly enough. Contrast with "continuing commitment" below.

The One Barnet programme is designed to protect and enhance our ability to serve our residents through an unprecedented period of austerity. The words "to protect" are not needed as they are followed by "to enhance" which aren't true anyway as One Barnet includes service cuts. We are not "our residents". You on the other hand represent "our council" except it has gone rogue on us. Mr Mustard thinks that some reading about the Great Depression is in order to question the use of "unprecedented".

The NSCSO contract will improve the quality of our services and will save an average of £12.5m per annum. Ask Mr Mustard if this is true in 2023.
 
This is £12.5m which would otherwise come largely from front-line service reductions. Well that is one choice. Getting every consultant & interim out of the North London Business Park, reducing the number of councillors from 63 to 21, not paying anyone more than £100,000 p.a., flattening the management structure and starting again with zero based budgets and becoming a boringly efficient organisation would be another way.

The DRS contract will improve the quality of our services, will save an average of £3.9m per annum which would otherwise largely come from front-line service reductions, and will create a growing Barnet-based business. Will other boroughs really agree to let Barnet make a profit out of providing services for them which would otherwise represent a saving in their own budget? For every winner there will be a loser. If having a Barnet based business is such a good thing why did you let NSL transfer the parking back office to Croydon?

Cabinet has carefully considered and approved these arrangements at all stages. So carefully that they haven't all read some or all of the NSCSO contract. Mr Mustard emailed all of the Cabinet as to how many pages they had each read. We know Richard Cornelius didn't read it as he said so and so his cabinet team are unlikely to have bothered; none responded to Mr Mustard's email (hello Cabinet member, it isn't too late to tell Mr Mustard you have read it all - what is that, oh an empty inbox).

The legal action pursued by the claimant is designed to delay or prevent these arrangements coming into place. It is designed to seek justice.
 
The initial application for Judicial Review was not allowed by the High Court and permission to appeal was refused. The claimant has, nevertheless, sought permission direct from the Appeal Court. This is called following due process, unlike the missing consultations.
 
The council deeply regrets this. Officers are not the council, they are its servants even if that doesn't appear to be the case. Is this remark on behalf of councillors? Richard Cornelius said "everyone has a right to speak to the Courts" (except when it buggers our cunning plans up of course).

I am acutely aware of the challenges of continuing effective service delivery during this period of uncertainty which is not of our making. Who started this pig in a poke that is One Barnet then, as it wasn't the residents?

I remain very grateful for the continuing commitment of all staff affected by these projects. Why would anyone want to TUPE transfer out such a committed workforce? If this is the case why has £167,000 been committed to Capita to cover for holes in the staffing? see Mr Reasonable's blog here.

We will be putting additional measures in place to support the continued delivery of services during this period, and more information will be available shortly for the affected areas. Can't wait. Crisis, what crisis?

Andrew no longer a Town Hall Tax Dodger Travers

NSCSO JR appeal

News reaches Mr Mustard that a provisional, although highly probable, set of dates for the appeal of Maria Nash against the NSCSO Judicial Review judgement is 7 & 8 October 2013 (Mr Mustard will see you in court!)

The delay is in no way attributable to Maria Nash and her legal team who are ready to roll today.

Thus I don't want to hear Councillor Richard Cornelius droning on about how the delay is costing taxpayers £1m a month because:

- Mr Mustard is a council tax payer and would rather the appeal goes ahead

- many of the "savings" are only aspirational and in the fullness of time might just be shown to be smoke and mirrors

- the JR and the appeal have only been necessary because the council failed to consult

- the delay is entirely the fault of the council.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

2023 - We are already there in Barnet?

Amuse yourself by deciding which Barnet councillors you would send to Mars. Only room at first for 4 sadly but we can send 4 more every 2 years after that.

Why is Mr Mustard writing about Mars? It is an illustration of how much the world, and Barnet, might have changed before the NCSCO and DRS contracts with Crapita (and A N Other but probably Crapita) come to the end of their initial 10 year terms. No-one at the council, whether councillor or officer, or any of their highly paid external consultants can possibly predict what changes will have happened to local services by 2023 and so for that reason alone the Judicial Review challenges are justified. We are stopping you Richard (Cornelius) from making a big fool of yourself. Mr Mustard predicts that in 2023 people will be saying Richard who? although Mr Mustard suspects that if he asked the man or woman in the street "Who is the leader of Barnet Council?" that 99% of the populace wouldn't know the answer in 2013.

Richard has got himself a little confused. In the papers in early March before the JR took place he was reported as having said "Everyone has a right to speak to the courts" and now after the council won on a time point (which will be going to appeal as it didn't seem to follow case law) and got mullered on not having consulted he is all in a lather about the cost and delay and has said "that she (Maria Nash) should “carefully consider” an appeal that will incur more costs to the taxpayer". Did Richard consider carefully the views of residents when pressing ahead on the One Barnet transformation with evangelical zeal? Er, no.

What Mr Mustard worries about is the effect this will have on the decision making freedom of councillors to be elected in May 2014, May 2018 and May 2022. Richard is in a pretty safe ward (or so he probably thinks) and probably hopes to be elected again and also to have a majority on the council and still be in charge.

He plans now to sign up for 10 years (120 months) a contract for which Crapita are mobilising for a 1 July start and so there will be 10 months of this current administration to run. Is it right and proper that a councillor who may not be in power after a mere 8% of a contract he signs up for has run its course, which he knows is the antithesis of what his opponents believe in, can tie us all in this way to an external supplier.

We don't of course want a system where every 4 years we could jockey from having an in-house provision of everything to an outsourced supplier of everything as that way lies madness and waste but maybe limiting the contract terms that can be signed to 5 years, with a no-fault, no compensation, cancellation option on 6 months notice at any time would be a practical method?

It might be acceptable for Richard top press on if he had a mandate from the people for this policy i.e. it was what he was elected to do. Did the words "One Barnet" figure in his election literature. Mr Mustard asked Richard months ago for a copy and guess what, answer came there none (Richard has a special sub-section of his inbox for the really hard questions and most of Mr Mustard's emails end up in there). Mr Mustard surmises that this means the words "One Barnet" were not mentioned as they weren't in East Barnet where one of the (do you know Mr Mustard really doesn't know what to call the 2 cabinet members who supposedly have responsibility for One Barnet so he won't call them anything official at all except) backers of One Barnet, stood for council.

It might also be acceptable to sign up for 10 years if a massive majority of residents had been consulted and thought that One Barnet was a great idea. As we know all too well that is why there has been a judicial review and why Maria Nash is right to go to appeal. Yes she has the benefit of legal aid but who has £300,000 sloshing around down the back of the sofa to spend on legal fees?

Mr Mustard reckons he knows who does have that level of savings; a Totteridge dwelling jeweller called Richard Cornelius, who will probably be sunning himself at his French holiday home instead of sitting avidly through the Court of Appeal hearing.

Finally a little note especially for the Crapita employee who happily chatted to the Barnet Bloggers (and they were happy to chat to him) . Mr Mustard promised the nice man 10 years of hell. Have you got the idea yet Mr Crapita? everything you do will be scrutinised and more Judicial reviews will follow if you change anything to the detriment of the populace. Mr Mustard hopes that you put the cost of defending judicial reviews into your bid. The bloggers are watching you, very closely.

Usual seats in the Royal Courts of Justice? Mr Mustard will stand you a beer at lunchtime.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard