PayByPhone locations

Mr Mustard asked for these uncontroversial numbers last year but they were asked for during the period when he was annoying the council too much by asking too many questions so they were deemed to be a vexatious question. Now the council have themselves published them and an email from the Barnet Bugle pointing Mr Mustard at them gave him the idea of converting the pdf (a completely useless way of publishing a table) to a spreadsheet, so here it is so that you can play with it (you can download it yourself and use a filter to sort the entries with)

former Parking Meter and relative Cashless Location numbers by MisterMustard

What you can gain from this is the ability to sort the list into different orders and count up payable locations by town centre. Mr Mustard can only find 2 locations where you have to pay in the Leader's ward of Totteridge and the greatest number (about 70) are of course in North Finchley which is treated as a parking piggy bank; one day it will be empty and then the council will be sorry.

What you can also find in this list is loads of secondary locations where payment should not be the order of the day but 4 hour free bays would be better (residents couldn't hog them and they would provide sufficient time for visitors to do most things and for the rest they could perhaps get a visitor voucher). Mr Mustard also wonders about allowing 1 hour free parking in any Residents Bay as for most of the day they are half empty.

Mr Mustard also wonders why we weren't allocated a discrete block of numbers so that when you transpose two digits, or get one of them wrong, you don't find yourself paying for parking in another borough or another country and the money at least ends up at the correct tariff in the correct bank account?

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

rather than have Mr Mustard spend hours working out why you can only download as a pdf and not as the original xls document I uploaded, if you want an .xls version, simply email me at mrmustard@zoho.com and you will be sent one.

Worked it out. Go to scribd

scribd link for paybyphone locations xls download

select download and then choose .xls, simples

28 billion coins worthless in Barnet's car parks

coins might as well be collectors' items in Barnet

Sometimes you hear that there isn't a demand for some product or service and so it is not offered.

Here in Barnet we are not offered the most convenient method of paying by coin of the realm, you have to find a shop to buy a permit or a paypoint outlet. In that time you are at grave risk of getting a parking ticket.

It isn't as if there is a shortage of coin in the UK, per the Royal Mint there are 28 billion coins in circulation, so the method of payment is not hard to find. It is simply that the council don't want us to use it.

Yesterday the debit/credit card meter in the Moxon St, High Barnet car park was fixed. The cause of the problem was coins inserted into the card reader. Now that shows you how desperate people are to pay by cash and how hard it is for the man in the street to believe that a parking meter doesn't take cash.

What a pity that the council don't want to listen to the public or provide a service for which there is self-evidently unfulfilled demand.

One day, cash meters will return as will shoppers.

Update; A twitter follower suggested that Mr Mustard was being optimistic about the return of cash parking meters. Perhaps, but next May lots of councillors want to be re-elected or newly elected. This decision was taken by the Conservative majority. Every time one of their councillors or would be councillors comes knocking on your door asking for your vote, say yes of course, if you bring cash parking meters back (and then vote for who you like!).

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

The long way round

or go to Marks & Spencers in the High Rd or your corner shop?

Yesterday Mr Mustard had to pop to North Finchley. He took his motorbike so that he could park in the Lodge Lane car park for free. He was wearing a Mr Mustard t-shirt and a couple of people stopped him to say hello which was nice.

A visitor from Haringey couldn't believe that his coins were of no use. He had come out without his credit/debit card ready to spend his folding money in the local shops and was about to leave as he was going to follow the advice of Barnet Council and park elsewhere, which was going to be back in Haringey. Mr Mustard took the man's £1.30 and put a Mr Mustard credit card in the parking meter for him and handed over the ticket.

Then a lady told him that she was sick of listening to the PayByPhone message which, whilst you are actually trying to PayByPhone, pointlessly tells you that you can download an App or use the website. That is her time being frittered away on every visit, she doesn't like it. John, more of him later, told Mr Mustard that using the App is slower than using the calling up method. It is also very much harder when the sun is shining brightly as it was yesterday as flat screens are pretty useless except in the shade.

Mr Mustard took a while to get where he was going but that didn't matter as he wasn't in a rush. He did notice that from the far end of the car park where Mr Mustard had put his motorbike out of the way, that it was impossible to see the debit/credit card meter because there is a car space somewhat perilously placed right in front of it. Mr Mustard seems to recall suggesting to Cllr Dean Cohen, whose responsibilities include parking, that signs in the Car Park would be a good idea. He couldn't find his email so simply sent another one today. Let's see how long it takes before signs are put up alerting people to the presence of a debit/credit card meter. Surely the council want people to use these shiny new meters?

Now John, a splendid gentleman who paid for his parking with the App but couldn't remember the location number and has to check on the board every time, had different information for Mr Mustard about the hole in the road that is Totteridge Lane at the moment and here it is:

Hello Mr. Mustard,
It was interesting to meet you in the Lodge Lane car park today (and you too John). You suggested that I send you my thoughts on the Totteridge Lane diversion routes - so here goes.
During road works in the top stretch of Totteridge Lane, traffic is not allowed to enter Totteridge Lane from the High Road in Whetstone. Barnet Council have published two alternative routes, both of which are ludicrously long. They may be necessary for large vehicles, but there are much shorter routes suitable for cars.

Route 1 is to go south on the High Road to North Finchley, Ballards Lane, Alexandra Grove, Argyle Road, Chanctonbury Way, Southover, Longland Drive to Totteridge Lane. A much shorter route is to leave the High Road via Woodside Lane and take Ridgeview Road and Naylor Road to Totteridge Lane.

Route 2 is even more crazy (Mr Mustard thought Route 1 was pretty crazy). It is to go north on the High Road and continue all the way to Barnet Church. Then go via Wood Street and Barnet Road through Arkley to Stirling Corner. Then south on the A1 almost to Apex Corner and follow Marsh Lane, Highwood Hill, Totteridge Common, Totteridge Village to Totteridge Lane. A much shorter route is to turn left at the bottom of Barnet Hill, onto Mays Lane, then via Barnet Lane to Totteridge Village and Totteridge Lane.

The Whetstone branch of Waitrose has a car park entered from Totteridge Lane, just below the road works. I understand Waitrose issued leaflets to customers, recommending the alternative routes which I have suggested above. Waitrose were contacted by the Council and told that they must advise customers to use the official routes and not the alternatives. Waitrose complied and changed their leaflets. I do not understand what authority the council have to issue such instructions to Waitrose.

Yours sincerely

John

Of course local people will take the shorter routes that they know but sending strangers 10 miles out of their way isn't good for the planet and will probably be defeated by satnav. What was somebody thinking? If you have copies of the leaflets please send them to mrmustard@zoho.com

Here is the 200 yard journey turned into one of 10 miles.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Update: Unusually Cllr Dean Cohen has responded the same day and will get officers to sort out signs in the car park. Good man.

Second update: The Waitrose issued maps above shows their North Finchley store and the joke is that if coming north up Ballards Lane intending to go to Waitrose N20 you would be directed left by the council's sign 50m before the N Finchley store. Great.

How many lives has the removal of parking meters ruined?

A guest blog by a trader who would rather stay anonymous - it could be any of them, well any of the ones who are still there.

an empty car park one week after meters bagged over

I took the above picture in Moxon St car park in High Barnet one week after the council put bin bags over the meters ( 8 November 2011 ). 

As you can see, the car park is empty. Historically on a Wednesday at this time you were lucky to get a place.

The second picture is from when they actually took away the meters, the reverse of what’s happening this morning – ground has just been broken for the replacement meter 532 days later. From observation, I calculate lost revenue to the council coffers (at  £577 per day) to be over £307,000!

the hokey cokey meter dance

This debacle has cost our towns MILLIONS of pounds. Our business alone has lost tens of thousands of pounds. Many jobs have been lost, partnerships have reached impossible levels of stress and children left in broken marriages. It’s not just the businesses that have closed: those that survived have let go cleaners, laid off full and part-time staff, they have cut back on advertising and charity sponsorships and they themselves cut back in spending amongst their peers in the high street. They have been forced, like us, to work impossible hours. Forget the Working Time Directive, I now work over 78 hours a week and have little time to spend with my children. The knock-on costs have been immense.

Have the council apologised? No

Have they made any attempt at recompense? No

Have they held out a hand and offered to help stimulate the high streets? No

It all leaves you feeling a little sick and disillusioned with those that pretend to be civilised but are simply masquerading as ‘humanity’.

---

and now back with Mr Mustard. You can feel the personal pain from the above heartfelt words that traders are suffering.

The cash option was removed as it cost about £500,000 a year to employ a team of people who collected the cash from 400 meters. This is about £1,500 a day and when compared to the possible lost revenue from one car park alone it seems that a proper cost benefit analysis was not done. The problem is that the solution was thought to be a simple choice between two options, 400 cash meters or none at all. That was the thinking of closed minds.

The first thing that should have been done was a cull of 25% of the meters that collected the least amount of money and make those bays free with a time limit for parking to balance supply and demand. Then a review of those meters that remained to see if some could be converted to free bays or to stay the same, and those in car parks retained as cash payment machines with pay-by-phone offered as an option for those that wanted to pay by card using an app on their smartphone. In a car park with multiple meters some could have been cash and some for credit card only making them less liable to be vandalised. Cash only machines could be put under cctv and enclosed in a protective metal cage so they are harder to attack.

This could have left an estate of 100 or so machines and a much reduced cash collection cost along with the flexibility that the public wants and needs.

In Barnet the baby was thrown out with the bathwater.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Injecting with botox whilst Barnet Council apply the leeches

A leech, stay well away!

Mr Mustard wants our high streets to remain otherwise one day we will all be born, come home from hospital if they still exist, and not leave home again until we go out in a box and that is not the kind of society that appeals to Mr Mustard.

Mr Mustard was invited to attend the launch event of the Future of North Finchley at the Arts Depot and he duly did having also blogged the poster for others to see.

There was an introduction by David Longstaff, a talk by Sally Williams of Retail Revival, another by Liza Fior of MUF Architects (MUF stands for Modern Urban Fabric) another by Tracey Cooper of ArtsDepot, another by a local resident Brenda Goldberg (not Barbara as she was styled on the invite, oh dear a lack of attention to detail there) and then finally Helen Michael the queen of parking got up to speak.

Mr Mustard has a couple of bones to pick. Sally denied, with respect to Mr Mustard's interjection about money on shopfronts in High Barnet perhaps not being the best example of what to spend on, that money had been spent on Cafe Pacino which has since closed down. Bloggers remember lots of detail. Here is what the Barnet Residents Association had to say in their newsletter

In the lower half of the High St two shops, Chudys and Cover - along with Café Pacino in Church Passage - were similarly treated along with the provision of new awnings. The next task of course, and decidedly more difficult, is getting other shops to create more tasteful frontages that will contribute to the overall kerb appeal of the town.

Now Mr Mustard does think Sally is on our side but he will have to put what she says through a verification filter from now on. A bad start but every dog gets two bites.

Lisa Fior of MUF architecture said "we have used the bloggers", No Liza. We are independent, there were two of us there, + Dan of the Barnet Bugle (a newspaper that looks like a blog) and we did not confer before advertising the event or afterwards about what we would write, if anything. We decide individually what, when, why and how we write. Barnet Council should not be proud of the number of bloggers that write about Barnet (and there are more than the famous five, see the side bar to the left) they should be sitting up and taking notice and trying to be so boringly efficient, display so much common sense and good judgment and spend money so wisely that there is absolutely nothing to write about (a vision that Mr Mustard hopes will one day come to pass).

Helen got up to speak and of course most things had been said by then. She also wasn't given much notice that she had to speak and so it was off the cuff. Helen loves North Finchley as she lives and works there but gagging her by telling her not to talk about parking was pretty stupid.

Not Helen Michael (gagged) but an ex parking meter (bagged)

There are lots of problems facing the High Street although exactly what they all are and the size of each problem is a subject that one could argue about in the Bohemia for hours on end. One problem is simple to solve. We know that traders across the borough saw falls in trade of 30% to 40% as soon as coin operated parking meters were taken away and for most this will have turned their profits into losses. Put back coin operated meters (yes they could also take credit cards) and trade will magically improve to somewhere near where it was 2 years ago (the charges also need to be lower and there should be more free parking bays - calm down cyclists, you will get thought of)

So as soon as the speechifying was over Paul Shea of Tally Ho Discount (and now also selling lots of low priced fruit and vegetables - follow him on twitter @thfruitandveg ) was away like a pack of hounds after a fox and asked about parking. Everyone wanted to talk about parking except Barnet Council and its consultants. The council and its consultants want people to give up their time to make North Finchley a better place which is all right up to a point but why do we pay council tax or business rates,  is it just to fund the £130,000 salary of the Director of Place who wasn't in attendance, and most people are pretty busy, Helen, for example, works at least 12 hours a day 7 days a week and many other traders are having to work long hours to try and improve their turnover or to cover for staff they could no longer afford to employ once the council kicked them in the shins. So really the council should do all of the work because it is why they are there; people should simply be asked to contribute ideas.

There were only about 100 people at the launch. There should have been a lot more. That was fewer than half of the traders there and hardly any residents. Publicity of these events needs a much greater effort in future. Mr Mustard has had a business in Barnet, with a registered office having a Barnet postcode for a lot of the time, for 25 years and he cannot recall more than one approach from the council on a business matter (and that was whether he was interested in bidding to collect poll tax from which he ran a mile) and so he wonders how many businesses Barnet Council just don't know about. In Mr Mustard's road of 30+ properties there are 14 businesses run from home and he doubts that Barnet Council know about more than one of them. An architect who lives and works in North Finchley was spitting nails because he only heard about the event as he is a member of the folk club.

What the council does do is take away easy payment methods and give us hard ones that don't cater for all of the populace (unlike cash which does) and squeeze the motorist for over £12 million giving them a net annual profit from parking (income and parking tickets) after costs of £5 million of £7.5 million. The council should simply aim to break even from parking and no more. The council are hindering the high streets by taxing them out of existence.

Mr Mustard noted down one or two of Helen's ideas. She wanted coin operated parking meters but didn't say so as she was asked not to, she wanted to improve footfall, she wanted to get University business students into one of the empty shops so all the latest idea would pour forth, she wants a website listing all of North Finchley's businesses, she wants the Finchley carnival back, she wants better Xmas lights, she wants to improve the market and possibly relocate it and generally she wanted the town centre to be accessible and attractive partly by making it much greener.

There was some anger that the £1.1m (not Boris's money but our money) seemed to have been carved up into chunks already without the traders and locals having had their input into what they would like to see which bespeaks of the usual council arrogance and it is clear that the 2 council officers who are charged with getting the Town Team that is to be formed are going to find it challenging (as problems are euphemistically called these days) but they have both shown themselves prepared to listen even though they don't have the authority to sort out the debacle which is parking but the face lift that they are charged with managing will be to no avail until the council remove the blood sucking leeches from the legs of the patient.

Dean Cohen was another councillor notable for not being there and David Longstaff who should have stepped in when the meeting was going all wrong (you can read Roger's report here) sat on his hands. Mr Mustard has been in touch with Sally, Liza and David and given them his tuppenceworth and he will be of positive help once parking meters are installed.

An ugly rumour has reached Mr Mustard that there are plans afoot to spend £30,000 on new rubbish bins. What is the point of asking for ideas if someone in authority has already taken a decision. £30k on new bins would be a waste. Does anyone go to a high street elsewhere for shopping because they have new rubbish bins? No. £30k would buy 6 or 7 coin operated parking meters. That Mr Mustard and probably every trader in North Finchley would vote for.

What else would Mr Mustard like to see?:

A tram, look here is one in High Barnet

and another at Tally Ho

they would be so much better than buses. Mr Mustard would use them all the time and leave the blogger bus at home. Trams would reduce town centre pollution levels which are, he is told, very bad in North Finchley.

If we want people to cycle to work then facilities have to be provided. There is a cycle shop in North Finchley (Shorter Rochford) but it is on the edge of the shopping district in Woodhouse Rd. What is really needed is a cycle shop that does sales, repairs and all day secure bike storage, lockers and showers if we really are going to get an uptake in the use of cycles. No-one wants to sit next to a sweaty colleague so showers are a must and most shops and offices won't have any.

Mr Mustard loves French towns with their town square. He would create one in North Finchley. How? He would compulsorily purchase the building that stand between the Lodge Lane car park and the High Rd and make a square that joins to the High Rd. Shops could be built around the edge of the square with restaurants and offices above and flats above them. Car parking could be provided in a car park underneath the square. That is what they do in France and we should copy them. The council will say it is a lot of money but this is the sort of project that the council should be looking at to make the town a place to visit rather than trying to concrete over Cricklewood / Brent X. Look at this corner of a square in Bordeaux, Mr Mustard just wants to go there this minute, we need to develop the same feeling for all of the town centres of Barnet, not just North Finchley.

Bordeaux

Mr Mustard does hope that coin operated parking meters and other good things do come out of this opportunity.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

1.5m people in UK don't have a bank account

The wrong question - Pay-by-phone is the elephant in the room

When coming round from his slumbers one recent morning (a lovely image for readers to have in their head) Mr Mustard heard on Radio4 that 2 million people did not have a bank account in the UK (or Britain or England - Mr Mustard was only half awake). Well he thought that is 2m people who face great difficulties if they want to visit Barnet and we do want them all to visit Barnet at some point but why bother when paying for parking is such a pain and it is easier to go elsewhere and have an easier life.

The exact figure of the number without a bank account is unclear. The Daily Telegraph has it at 1.5million. Looking further afield Mr Mustard found a report from the Centre for Strategy & Evaluation Services which looked at the area of financial exclusion in 2009. That found that 100% of Danes have a bank account, 98% of people in the UK and 49% in Bulgaria so those Bulgarians who move to Barnet in the future are in for a rude awakening.

The parking reviews which are currently being carried out across the borough are proceeding at snail's pace, not asking the right questions and not resulting in the steps which are necessary to allow everybody easy access to a payment system that meets their needs.

Let us see them

1847 - North Finchley Parking Review by MisterMustard

DPR1847 Appendix B Analysis of General Questionnaire Responses - North Finchley Parking by MisterMustard

1907 - Edgware Town Centre Parking review by MisterMustard

1910 - Chipping Barnet Parking Review by MisterMustard

Now the perceived parking problems had to be put into order of importance. That leads to a problem. Is it a bigger problem that parking is £2 an hour or that if you don't have a credit/debit  card you cannot pay? everyone will have a different idea.

In North Finchley 54 businesses said it was the cost and 48 cited the pay-by-phone system as the main concern but another 18 said the lack of pay&display (by which they are taken to mean cash meters) so taken together that is 66 who think it is the payment method which is the most important. The cost of parking was reduced although much more could be done by the council to actually attract people to the High Street rather than not putting them off but nothing of import was done about aboutcash payment options.

In Chipping Barnet, which has fewer shops, there was a lower response but 20 of the 38 respondents cited pay-by-phone as the main problem. 4 others said the lack of coin operated parking meters. Did that lead to cash parking meters being re-introduced? No.

Finally for now, Edgware. 19 responses here. Largest complaint, yes you guessed it, pay-by-phone.

The "wrong" method of questioning was used. What the council should have asked was closed questions such as:

Would you like cash parking meters to be re-instated?

Mr Mustard suspects that the answer would have been yes in 99% of replies but then the council would have been obliged to do something they don't want to do because they want to save the costs of collecting the cash which is to Mr Mustard's mind completely the wrong way of looking at things.

If you are a business in a town centre yet to be surveyed please write "I want to see coin operated parking meters in this town" on every page of the questionnaire.

Let people who want to pay-by-phone do so. Let those who want to pay by coin do so. In business the customer is meant to be king but here in Barnet we have been scuppered for now by the soi-disant King of Bling (Brian Coleman signed the DPR to remove parking meters and scrap them and it will take a bold decision by Dean Cohen to put them back and Mr Mustard has yet to see him do anything bold).

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Wanted - parking meters please.

Part of the rather thin justification for getting rid of parking meters was the cost of dealing with vandalism and repairing machines. Nowhere did Mr Mustard see any document from the council setting out what steps they had taken to prevent vandalism (which wasn't quantified and probably not as bad as made out).

Whilst in Carcassone at New Year Mr Mustard noticed this machine in a public car park (he had himself parked the blogger bus on the other side of the car park, about 10m down a hill where it was free to park (why pay when you can walk the extra 10m?).

So here is a parking meter which is installed inside a solid metal cage. This both discourages casual vandalism as power tools will be needed for any attack and makes the cash box within much more secure. You can see the cctv camera on the right hand outside of the cage. There was another on the left hand side. It seems likely that vandalism of any of these machines in remote locations will have virtually ceased. Graffiti is common in France. There was none on this machine.

In addition the meter accepts cash in the form of notes or coins (the first hour was free) and credit cards.

What a pity that those in charge at Barnet Council didn't have sufficiently open minds to look at other options when they removed the meters. Maybe they will start to think for the future once they read this blog post.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Happy Christmas to Dean Cohen

Yesterday Cllr Dean Cohen visited High Barnet in the latest round of his visits to High Streets to be given a good ear bashing about the parking policies and prices which he didn't install but this being a cabinet decision, and he has been elevated to the Cabinet, he has to defend. He has the problem that he can only give on parking if something else gets cut in the EPR* directorate which would make life hard even for the most experienced Cabinet member and Dean is the new boy and probably feeling pretty sick of traders by now. Poor boy, there is so much more earbashing to come.

Mr Mustard will report what he can in due course, anything that isn't embargoed, Mr Mustard is a High Barnet businessman of 25 years standing after all, but for now will just share with you the latest shop poster which will have greeted Dean's eyes

It is hard to imagine any other area in which people would demand an easier opportunity to pay their fees and taxes. 

If a charge is fair, the populace want to pay it. The council are resisting making it easier for people to pay. Bonkers.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

* EPR = Environment, Planning, Regeneration

....we are willing to pay any price....

http://hiddlesquotes.tumblr.com/

Executive summary:

It is impossible to get some people to follow the rules at Barnet Council, it is the law of the jungle when it comes to procurement. Senior management have failed.

Some background:

The council paid over £1m to an unlicensed security guard company (MetPro - ooh not typed that name for a while - a stink takes a long time to disperse) without a contract being in existence.

This led to the production of a Procurement Action Plan (Mr Mustard christened it PAP and pap it certainly is) which Nick Walkley presented to the Audit Committee on 16 June 2012.

Before he did so Mr Reasonable was able to speak for 5 minutes and one thing he said was "the management culture is flawed".

The soon to be ex CEO Nick Walkley said he was concerned that departments knew and did nothing (has anything changed since?).

The now mayor, Brian Schama, said that the council cannot rely on systems that compliance is done.

Andrew Travers said that he accepted that core processes are fundamental. He is the line manager of all contracts. He takes full responsibility for sorting it out. The action plan is to be implemented by September 11.

Mr Mustard sees from his 12 pages of longhand notes that later on in the meeting Nick Walkley said "have to change the culture" (you didn't manage it Nick and now you are on your bike) and he also spoke about "finishing what we started" (oops, One Barnet not finished).

Cllr Geoff Cooke said "we have to make the officers buy in".

Cllr (Lord) Monroe Palmer said "people too busy not doing their job".

The 6 September Audit Committee saw the arrival of Mick Stokes (he's already history) to present an update on the PAP and the traffic lights were all blue (closed) or green (on target). No blogger, who was present, thought the plan was satisfactory (whitewashed in blue & green is an unusual combo). The plan included the embedding of Contract Procedure Rules in information systems and monitoring routines. Instructions were issued to all relevant staff by email on 20 July 11 regarding new procedures and controls which will also be included within staff training.

At this meeting Mick Stokes told the committee that potential cavalier spend is restricted and constrained (did he leave because he found it wasn't?).

Monroe Palmer (he is so good, he really should be listened to more) said he "doesn't want to be bitten again" (by poor procurement controls).

On 26 October 2011 Mr Mustard put the cat amongst the pigeons by sending the following email to Pam Wharfe, the interim director of parking and other stuff.

---

Dear Ms Wharfe

Part 4 of the council's procedure rules says that for a contract with a value of £75,000 to £156,442

Request three(3) or more written competitive quotations but must have minimum 2 returned. Less than 2 bids returned then repeat competition.

Please can you tell me why you have signed DPR 1419 in breach of that very clear rule.

The Procurement Code of Practice says that a supplier should not get more than 25% of its business from the Council. What percentage of the turnover of R M Countryside Services Ltd emanates from Barnet Council?

---

On 9 November he wrote again

I note that the council has a 10 day target for replying to correspondence. I hoped that having raised such an important point, especially after the Procurement Action Plan was presented to the Audit Committee, that a reply would already have been received to my below email. I look forward to hearing from you very soon.

---

On 28 November, failing a response, he turned his enquiry into a complaint. 

This caused a reaction and he got a reply the next day, part of which was

I have reviewed the issues you have raised about this contract. I have thought carefully about the withdrawn tenders and I am content that officers still achieved value for money by using the term contractor who did competively (sic) bid for the work. My overriding duty is to secure value for money and the best available option for the council (5-1) and I think that officers had reasonably sought a good price for the work using a competitive process.

On 5 December Mr Mustard wrote again (why do the council think they can fob Mr Mustard off, he just keeps on going?)

---

Dear Ms Wharfe

You have repeated the supposed value for money for your actions which I have already discredited. You are in breach of the Constitution. This is what the council website says about the Constitution ( which includes the Contract Procedure Rules ).

"This Constitution sets out how the Council operates, how decisions are made and the procedures which are followed to ensure that these are efficient, transparent and accountable to local people"

You are bound by the Constitution as otherwise there would be little point in its existence. On what grounds are you ignoring the rules and continuing with a contract that has not been lawfully made?

---

and the highly unsatisfactory response was:

I have nothing more to add.

Pam Wharfe

Interim Director Environment, Planning & Regeneration

You might be adding something later!

The final piece of background is the report of the Task & Finish Group on contract monitoring. It was presented to the Business Management Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 29 February 2012. Mr Mustard was in the public gallery.

Monroe (Mr Mustard is a big fan of Lord Palmer) agreed that more robust monitoring was needed. He also said that "people who place the orders disregard the rules" (proof to follow Monroe) and "officers simply do what they think is right" (even when it is wrong). He asked if the service areas were buying in? Monroe was worried about "people doing what they want" (bang on again).

The smoking gun

Mr Mustard asked on 27 April 2012 to see emails about the use of RM Countryside. He got his answer on 10 October 2012 (the longest 20 days ever). There were over 30 pages of emails. Mr Mustard showed you one yesterday and there are 3 more today. The other pages, not released by Mr Mustard, simply show in general the topsy turvy way in which goods are purchased in Pam Wharfe's directorate.

emails about paying any price for parking meter removal

Well look at that.

"Haven't heard back but we are willing to pay any price to have one or both of them start removing ASAP!"

Any price! Any at all, just choose a number and the council will pay it. That is Mr Mustard's money you are spending Barnet Council. If it is going to be wasted Mr Mustard can do it himself.

You can see some people trying to follow the rules. The Highways Manager knows that Pam Wharfe has asked Audit for advice. He also knew that Declan (his boss, the Assistant Director of Highways & Transport (a no. 2 to Pam Wharfe) was reviewing the RM FOI question. Now that was Mr Mustard's question and he should simply receive factual answers and not have his questions subjected to review meetings where risk is minimised.

The interim Parking Maintenance Manager knew that RM were up to their limit. They did not have a contract and had been given a purchase order for £30,000 both of which were rule breaches but at least he knew he had already gone far enough.

Other quotes were being sought but they were for more money. The net should have been cast wider.

The problem is that Cllr Brian Coleman, at that time the Cabinet Member with irresponsibility for parking, simply wanted meters gone and was asking for RM Countryside to be used. Mr Mustard does not have any proof that Brian was told that they were over the spend level for RM (you can form your own conclusion on that point).

How could Pam Wharfe have written to Mr Mustard that she was content that her officers obtained value for money when they were prepared to pay any price? any price!

Yours frugally (unlike the council)

Mr Mustard

Getting a new life in France

http://www.verdun-meuse.fr

Mr Mustard wasn't in the public gallery last Tuesday as he was playing snooker (and an octogenarian relies on him for a lift so he gets priority over Barnet Council) but any male who had chosen to be in it was described as mad & sad and bloggers have been described in the turgid king of bling blog that you will have to find for yourself as needing to get a life. Well despite all of the commotion that there has been in Barnet this week Mr Mustard has blogged very little. Why is this? Well it is because it is difficult to blog at 130kph astride a motorcycle on a French or Belgian autoroute and on the road it is necessary to think about the traffic rather than about the incompetence of Barnet Council, although it is hard to keep that out of ones mind, there being so much of it. 

This means that the mysterious black van (which advertises the Barnet Bloggers on the side so is evidently a secret surveillance vehicle!) was parked for several days only about 300m from the home of a councillor, but then it always is because they happen to live about 300m away!

Mr Mustard does have some work to do and between bouts of work he has some blogs coming along. This is a quick one to announce his return to the fray.

Mr Mustard stayed in the historic city of Verdun about which Wikipedia says:

Verdun (French pronunciation: [vɛʁ.dœ̃]; medieval German: Wirten, official name before 1970 Verdun-sur-Meuse) is a city in the Meuse department in Lorraine in north-eastern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department.

Verdun is the biggest city in Meuse, although the capital of the department is the slightly smaller city of Bar-le-Duc.

There are about 20,000 inhabitants in Verdun. Now Mr Mustard parked his motorcycle in a corner of the square which leads to the top of the monument. One of the joys of France is that you can leave your motorcycle on an empty section of pavement and not be bothered by the "police nationale" or by a "contractuel" (traffic warden). This has seen Mr Mustard leave his motorcycle right outside the tourist office in the middle of large cities. Naturally, motorcyclists make sure they do not incovenience pedestrians. They choose places which are not in the way, internal corners are especially useful.

The other joy of France, including for car drivers, is that parking meters go off for 2 hours at lunchtime as the stomach of a traffic warden is as important as the stomach of every other worker and the French do love their food as does Mr Mustard and it is starting to show. He has now started indoor rowing again (2000m is agony) to try and shift the weight as it will cost him £1,000 for a new one piece motorcycle race suit otherwise.

Now coming back to Barnet for a moment the population is about 350,000 and there are 15 town centres (Finchley, Hendon, Chipping Barnet etc etc) so each of the towns which make up the borough has about 23,000 residents. This is only a little more than Verdun so in parking terms they can be compared. Mr Mustard did find the time to take a photograph of a parking meter in the square in which he was parked in the town centre (a parking meter is a rare sight in Barnet nowadays - this one is a Parkeon a make which Barnet Council has recently scrapped a great pile of)

So you can see that it runs from 9am to 12 and then from 2pm to 7pm. Mr Mustard has only just noticed that there are 17minute and 34minute options (he does not know why but will ask his French friends later) and that parking charges go from 20cents for the 17minutes stay up to €2.80 for all day (about £2.25). So parking in this city of Verdun is much cheaper than in Barnet, is much easier as you can pay with coins of 5 different values from 10c up to €2 and if you want to pop to see a friend in the city at lunchtime you can see them for up to 2 hours for nothing. There is a tariff at another even more central car park where up to 12 minutes is free. (Les douze premières minutes de présence d’un véhicule sont gratuites.)

Credit Cards are not necessary as the charges are loose change and no time is lost faffing about with a mobile phone. You can also buy a monthly permit for €27 for the entire zone. Mr Mustard also didn't see any traffic wardens; maybe because when the charges are this low there is good compliance. 

If you can't stomach even these charges there are free spacious car parks just outside of the ramparts so you are still only 5 or 10 minutes from the centre.

Finally, Sundays and Bank Holidays are free.

Now what is that empty slogan that Barnet use "Putting the Community First". The Verdun (a lively City) website (Mr Mustard only looked at the pages in French) didn't seem to have a stupid slogan; the parking page simply includes the phrase that parking is quick and easy (simple et rapide). The first page you meet isn't how to pay for your penalty charge notice - Mr Mustard couldn't easily find any mention of them at all.

Quick and easy - not words which are likely to become the slogan in any Barnet town centre any time soon.

Does Mr Mustard have a life? It would appear that he does.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Mr Mustard welcomes the decision by Theresa Villiers to make changes to her views on parking.

A U-turn is recommended here

Mr Mustard is most interested by the latest information to appear on the website of his MP, Theresa Villiers, who is, it would appear, now on the side of parking charge campaigners. From her office in the top end of Chipping Barnet's high street she cannot have failed to notice how the shops are going downhill or simply going. To save your time Mr Mustard repeats the text below:-

Theresa Villiers, MP for Chipping Barnet, has welcomed the decision by Barnet Council to make changes to its parking policy.

Credit card machines will now be introduced in eight of the council’s town centre car parks that already charge for parking. Also, car parks in Theresa’s constituency in Church Hill Road in East Barnet and Osidge Lane and Brunswick Park Road in Brunswick Park Ward will remain free.

Parking scratch cards will be more widely available and local businesses will be able to buy vouchers at a discounted rate to sell on to shoppers. Alongside this, the Council is also exploring the possibility of introducing a 50p charge for fifteen minutes parking and considering the option of giving shoppers a few minutes free to enable them to nip into a shop for a newspaper or pint of milk. Half day visitor vouchers will also be introduced, priced at £2.20. (£2.20 is still a rip-off)

Theresa said, “It is welcome news that Barnet Council have listened to the concerns of residents, shoppers and business owners and are taking action to make Barnet’s parking system more user friendly and convenient.”

“It’s also good news that the Council are reviewing parking prices. In car parks and town centres, this will hopefully ensure that the right balance is found between attracting shoppers to our high streets and a steady turnover of customers for shopkeepers. I will be watching closely to see what they come up with.”

Here is the text of a letter that Ms Villiers sent to a constituent of Mr Mustard's acquaintance in January (he has cropped only the "Dear ...")

That letter looks to Mr Mustard to be a defence of what Barnet Council were doing and not "watching closely". Only a cynic would suggest that her fellow party members losing in the East Finchley by-election, Brian Coleman losing his GLA seat and Shaheen Mahmood failing to win in the Brunswick Park ward by-election have caused Theresa to feel uncomfortable for her prospects in May 2015.

"Theresa feels uncomfortable about her prospects in May 2015"
Mr Mustard (cynic).

Putting aside the fact that Theresa is a proper politician and so can change course without of course performing a u-turn. Let us look again at what advice Mr Mustard sent to Richard Cornelius on Friday, 2 December 2011

Dear Councillor Cornelius

Hero or Zero

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

---

So there we have it. Richard should have listened to helpful Mr Mustard back in December and many of his troubles would have faded away, Brian might still be in the GLA, and the 2 by-elections might have been won by his side.

All but 3 of the old parking machines were to be sent to the scrapheap. An answer about the total scrap income is still awaited. The cost to buy and install a new machine is about £5,000 and 5 will be needed so that is £25,000 wasted by letting Brian have his head and then not listening to the barrage of criticism from residents who have to pay for the council's mistakes. If councillors had to make good any losses they caused they might make decisions with a little more thought.

Mr Mustard's suggestion to let traders buy in bulk at a discount is also being taken up.

It is good to see that Richard has finally listened but if it is going to take this long to reverse obviously stupid unworkable policies we are all going to have to shout louder and longer.

Mr Mustard will have to send Richard more emails containing his advice and hopefully Richard will take them more seriously from now on.

Your next big disaster Richard is the One Barnet programme. Up to 2,000 staff will be passed to external providers and they could make every single one redundant if they wish and move the jobs out of borough (except when they physically can't.) in order to pay less wages and pension contributions. There is going to be an awful lot of blood on your hands. The first 25 One Barnet back office parking jobs have already been moved to Worthing.

You are always welcome to pop in for a chat and a cup of tea Richard whenever you are in Chipping Barnet.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard