Inadequate review of Residents Forums (social club postponed)

Review of Forums at 5 July 2013 by MisterMustard

Normally it being the second Tuesday Mr Mustard would host a little social gathering in the Bohemia but he has a diary clash, as he does nearly every night, and so he has to make choices. Instead of drinking beer and chatting with friends about anything at all, Mr Mustard will instead be at Hendon Town Hall at 7pm to attend the constitution committee in order to support Mr Reasonable who has applied his considerable intellect to the agenda and will doubtless give it a damn good thrashing when he gets his 5 minutes to comment. There should still be time for a cheeky half in The Greyhound afterwards (next to the Church Farmhouse Museum that the council closed) so the evening will not be completely dry.

Looking at the "review" that has been done of forums it really is a half-baked amateur effort, and if this is the basis of their decision, cabinet will make a decision based upon an inadequate number of comments. There really does need to be a great drive to gather information about Residents Forums and communication with residents generally. Maybe they should be renamed as One Barnet forums? that would get the message across that a radical transformation programme is underway. It is clear though that the current way in which forums are mis-managed is not acceptable.

Anyway, do come along this evening and watch a collection of councillors talk about changing back to a committee system (away from the cabinet - the gang of 10 with complete power) the Residents Forums and some procedural changes such as to how School Governors are appointed.

The meeting has to finish by 10pm and the Greyhound is open until midnight.

Mr Mustard's social meetings are now going to be held quarterly as he tries to wrest control of his diary back.

Finally a warning for Richard Cornelius. Mr Mustard is going to ask you again about the car the council have stolen and which you promised to sort out 2 weeks ago today. #Fail.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Keep it to yourself

Residents Forum Questionnaire - Barnet Council

 

Barnet Council usually carry out their consultations using surveymonkey which Mr Mustard refuses to use (giving his data to some corporation in the USA which might get hacked or abused or sold on is not something that Mr Mustard will sign up to) and he always asks for a paper copy of the consultation, a not at all radical idea that the council struggle to deal with (his copy of the Saracens CPZ survey has not arrived yet; in the time it took to send him an email saying it would be sent it could have been sent; why do people do 2 tasks when 1 would be much better?) and means that their consultations don't reach the hard to reach groups who don't use computers and who should still have a voice.

The above consultation was going to be carried out merely at the now sparsely attended forums (compared to before they were neutered) and so the people who do not attend, as satisfactory answers rarely arrive and they have largely given up, had no chance to have their say as the consultation was not on the council's website last week as reported on twitter by Mr Reasonable (@ReasonableNB if you want to follow him on twitter) but now it is and whereas before it was going to be fully considered at the Constitution Committee on 8 July, now it can't be, as the consultation runs until 15 July - a whole 2 weeks. That will give time for 350,000 residents to be properly consulted, will it not? No, it won't, nothing like it. Some officer must seriously have thought that asking a couple of dozen people at 3 forums would bring in sufficient responses on which to base a logical decision. Even putting it on the consultation hub of the website won't do much good. The advertising of it on blogs will reach more readers. Who gets up on a Monday morning and thinks, "I know, I'll go and have a look at the consultation hub on the council website" (apart from very interested parties like bloggers)? Answer, nobody does.

The questionnaire needs widely distributing. It should be in libraries, every child should get a copy from school to take home for a parent or guardian to answer and perhaps discuss local democracy with them, a pdf could be added to every email the council issues (each survey for a particular week) copies should be handed out outside supermarkets and railway stations etc etc until the response rate climbs into the thousands i.e at least 1% of residents.

What is Mr Mustard going to put on his form? Being the new boy (still only 2 years old) Mr Mustard doesn't know about how forums used to be but they were well attended apparently and that is a good place to start; return them to how they used to be and then change them slowly by trial and error.

Changes Mr Mustard might otherwise make would be to have morning, afternoon and evening sessions of one forum, in a venue like a cinema or theatre (with access for the disabled), have the whole borough together rather than an artificial split across the parliamentary constituencies and have a main theme for each month (yes, monthly forums) and then in addition allow any questions whatsoever and sufficient councillors and officers there such that proper answers can be given on the day. Broadcast the whole thing on the web.

You can download your form from above and then post it in to the council or scan it and send it by email.

It is, in theory, your council. Please tell them what you want.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Democracy in-action

Hello fellow bloggers, universities, schools of law, national newspapers, solicitors, Barnet Council employees; you have all been looking around the blogs featuring Barnet Council and reading about the parlous state of, inter alia, democracy at Barnet Council.

Sometimes you need to see the truth for yourself. This next week is your chance. There are 3 Residents Forums taking place. They are public meetings and thus open to all ( the rules actually say so, they are on my blog somewhere ) and here is the poster which advertises them. Barnet Council are so keen that interested parties attend that with this month's email sending me the poster ( it costs nothing to send emails ) came the following message:

Dear Resident,

Please see the attached Resident Forum Poster.

Please note that you will no longer receive this poster via email. Please visit the following link which will direct you to the appropriate section of Barnet Councils website for all future meeting details: ( oops a missing apostrophe in Council's )

Link to forums

Resident Forum meetings will be advertised in the Barnet Press and Libraries

Kind Regards,



P***** *******
Business Governance Officer, Corporate Governance Directorate

and here is the poster itself

Nov 11 Residents Forums - Barnet Council

So now instead of being informed in an open and transparent manner ( Barnet Council often claim those two adjectives apply to them ) the notification of the meeting to the parties who were interested enough to give their email address to Barnet Council ( and they were still being collected at the last meeting so this is an sudden change of policy ) one has to go into the library in the correct period, receive the local paper whose delivery is variable or keep looking on the website. Oh dear, an impartial observer might think that there was something to hide.

So dear readers, do please come along and make these the best attended meetings ever. Do read the rules first to find out what subjects are off the agenda - it is a long list. 

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Residents Forums - The variable cost of room hire

Here is one of my Freedom of Information requests that is one of the 175 that Cllr Thomas claimed cost an average of £225 to answer ( 9 hours work at £25 ). This one should not have taken more than 15 minutes and by having asked it Mr Mustard hopes that someone at Barnet Council will reflect on how much should be spent in the future i.e. smaller sums.

Response

I can confirm the following:

The cost of hall hire for the Finchley & Golders Green Residents' forums on the following occasions

5 January 2011 - Avenue House - £180.00.
9 March 2011 - St Michael’s Church Hall - £50.00
23 June 2011 - Greek Cypriot Neighbourhood Centre - £120.00
14 September 2011 - Trinity Church Centre - £106.00

 

The cost of hall hire for the Chipping Barnet Residents’ forums on the following occasions -

17 January 2011         - East Barnet School               - £105.00

22 February 2011       - Chipping Barnet Library        - £168.00

23 June 2011              - Coppetts Wood School         - £247.50

20 September 2011    - All Saints Art Centre             -  £30.00

The cost of hall hire for the Hendon Residents' forums on the following occasions -

18 January 2011         - Sangam Centre                   - £175.00

15 March 2011            - Barnet Multicultural Centre - £100.00

 23 June 2011             - Sangam Centre                   - £200.00

12 September 2011    - Copthall School                   - £420.00

So in Hendon the cost varies from £50 to £180 which is quite a large variance. There would need to be a good reason to spend more than £50 if that particular room is adequate.

Mr Mustard attends the Chipping Barnet forums. The All Saints hall was not worth tuppence, never mind £30. What Mr Mustard doesn't get is the complete waste of time of one department of the council charging another department for the use of the meeting room at the library. This is just moving money from one pocket of your trousers to another one. The same goes for schools ( at least until they become academies ) and why does one school charge £105 and the other £247 - it's bonkers.

There is an administration cost on top of the actual payment. Again, interesting variation in the room hire charge from £30 to £247.50

As to the Hendon Residents forum it looks like Copthall School are having a good go at fixing any holes in their budget. £420 for 2 or 3 hours of use - ridiculously expensive. How many council buildings sit empty of an evening that could be used for nothing. Inflation seems to have hit the Sangam Hall with a price increase in 6 months of 14% although you could still have two meetings there for the price of one at Copthall School and indeed 4 at the Barnet Multicultural Centre. 

If council officers were spending their own money would they perhaps enquire a little closer into costs and keep them down?

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard