Fiscal reality has not yet dawned at Barnet Council

That recent quote is to be contrasted with earlier statements in the press that the new West Stand would cost £20m. Inflation in building costs isn't rare as contractors seek to find extras which were not in the original specification.

So where will the money come from? Barnet Council of course.

At the recent Policy & Resources Committee an item to lend money (an unstated amount, it was in the secret papers as you, Mr & Mrs Council-tax-payer, are not entitled to know how your council tax is going to be thrown about) to Saracens for up to 30 years, was deferred to a future meeting.

Apparently it was going to be lent to them at 'commercial' rates' - commercial for Saracens or commercial for us? Mr Mustard hears you ask. 

Do Barnet Council have a good record when it comes to matters of banking? er, no.

A Labour Party press release, repeating a council officer (member of staff) email, showed that £1.13m in interest was lost. The council were without their deposited funds from 2008 to 2015 and flat rate interest for the seven years was 0.59%. In 2008 a saver could have obtained a decent interest rate from a High Street bank.

Investing in an Icelandic bank might have seemed like a good idea at the time but anything which seems to be too good to be true might well be.

Given that the finances of Rugby weren't, and probably still aren't, generally producing surpluses, you have to wonder about the wisdom of lending to that sector and how anyone can tell what will happen over the course of 30 years.

What is the purpose of a local authority? To provide local services.

What is the purpose of banks? To make loans.

Is this the only commercial loan that Barnet Council wish to make? as if it is, the situation stinks of preferential treatment.

Mr Mustard couldn't find any mention of making loans in the treasury strategy for 2018-19.

Have you got a loss making business within Barnet?

Do you need a massive loan?

Do you need long term finance, up to 30 years?

Send an email to cllr.r.cornelius@barnet.gov.uk and see what Richard says in response. He usually does reply to emails, Mr Mustard has found.

Yours frugally

Barnet Council

There has been trouble at t'mill in Coventry & Northampton and history should be taken account of, mind you everyone knew Capita's reputation and the council blundered blindly into a 10 year contract.

Update:

Mr Mustard meant to point out the irony of the long term loan to Saracens being listed on the same meeting at which the council's own serious budget pressures were being discussed. Perhaps that is why the item was deferred as clearly borrowing to lend doesn't really fit with the programme.

Beam me up Scotty

Mr Mustard is indebted to a PCN client who reads The Archer

www.the-archer.co.uk

and to The Archer (good for all news of East Finchley) themselves for giving permission to reproduce the following article from their February 16 monthly newspaper.

To add some detail, it is common for instant PCN to be given which completely lacks common-sense or fairness but the traffic warden must speed on his/her way to issue as many PCN as humanly possible, even though there aren't targets, no sirree.

Barnet Parking Services are not in Sheffield, a scanning machine is. Back Office parking is in Croydon (of course) senior management are in the North London Business Park (for now) and traffic wardens are based in Solar House in North Finchley. Joined up government if ever there was any. Oh yes, and permits seem to be processed by Capita in Coventry although that isn't very clear at present.

Eva is bang on the money.

The adjudicator, as quoted above, was correct and was much milder than some adjudicators on the subject of getting a visitor permit beamed from a property to a car without human help (perhaps we will all soon have to own a drone to send the voucher down to the car?).

The council are obliged to accept the decision of the adjudicator unless he applied the law wrongly which he didn't so they were stuck and had no say in the matter, they just have to suck it up.

The council will still use this stupid idea in their letters of rejection. Be like Eva, fight them to the end, it costs the council c. £33 in tribunal fees. If you need help with a similar PCN please email copies to mrmustard@zoho.com

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Emailing into nowhere

For at least a couple of years, the email address of Barnet Council's parking permits section has been parking.permits@barnet.gov.uk and it is, in fact, still being put on letters which have your new permit attached, viz:

from a May 15 letter

Now, a reasonable resident might just conclude they could therefore contact the parking permit section by email and many of you have done just that. You have been whistling in the wind as those emails do not get a response because the address is configured for outgoing email only. Mr Mustard has been told that an undeliverable message will automatically be generated.

Now you know Mr Mustard, he likes to test things himself, so he sent an email. He also put delivery and read receipt requests on it. It was delivered, doh!

No-one is looking at them though, delivered or not.

The permit system has been the subject of more than one change since Capita took over. No positive communications explaining this have been pro-actively sent out with residents left to find out the hard way when they don't get a permit nor a response and extra PCN are being issued some of which will end up being paid (not if you go via Mr Mustard they won't) as some people with busy lives just want quiet lives. Coupling a defective email address with a lack of permit renewal reminders is a double whammy and extra income for the council.

So halfway through this blog post and Mr Mustard does get a message

which does seem perfectly reasonable except for all those words at the bottom "blocked:" which makes him think he won't get a cheery little hello back from Crapita in Coventry.

What you do need to do if you have sent documents to that email address is to phone 020 8359 7446 or go to this link and upload your documents rather than email them. You will need your PIN number which you might have to phone up for as no previously allocated reference number for you seems to last 12 months.

If you haven't got your permit also ask for a dispensation and then put a reminder in your phone as you need a new one every 14 days.

It would be much better if the council opened contact points in libraries where this sort of thing could be applied for in person, your documents could be checked and loaded by a council employee and your permit could be printed out on the spot. But that would be to put the needs of residents first which is only an empty mantra, not actuality.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Crapita - Dispensing with dispensations

How many Crapita employees does the system require

An email received by Mr Mustard this week is below. He has redacted the staff names as they are only implementing the stupid call centre system that they are forced to follow or be sacked, so the junior staff are not to blame.

Dear Mr Mustard

I hope that you are very well.

I just want to let you know that today I called the Crapita Call Centre permit section to renew my Housing Permit which expires 14/03/2015 as I could not renew it online as it required a PIN which I do not possess. (PINs are new but no-one seems to have been told what they are. We all have to find out the hard way)

I spoke to the officer by the name Ms Redacted #1, who took my details. I told her that I wanted to renew my permit as it was expiring this week. She informed that she will start my permit on the 15/03/2015. I informed her that she needs to start the permit on the 16/03/2015 as the operational hours of the CPZ is Monday to Friday 10-11. I did not see the point of her starting the permit on Sunday.

She has agreed to start the permit on a Monday 16/03/2015. She then advised me that the permit will be sent today 1st class. (Odd that as Mr Mustard's was sent second class).

From reading your blog I have noted the difficulties other residents have endured. So I asked the officer for temporary dispensation to start on the 16/03/2015, so that if the permit does not arrive I would not be penalised by getting PCN from NSL. The officer refused and Informed me because my permit is still valid, they would not issue the dispensation. She also informed me that I had to call on Monday the 16/03/2015 to get dispensation. I told her that this was not the way when Barnet Council was dealing with the permit and I ask if this is a new policy implemented by Capita. She just kept repeating that they would not issue a dispensation.

I asked to speak to a manager which I was transferred to by the name Mr Redacted #2, and I explained my situation that they have to give dispensation as they cannot guarantee the permit will be received before Monday. In addition it creates hassle to call back the call centre just to get the dispensation on the day of enforcement as Monday is always busy day. (and a dispensation issued on Monday would only apply from Tuesday)

The manager agreed with me and transferred the call to another officer by the name Mr Redacted #3 to issue dispensation from 16/03/2015 to 02/04/2015.

All this could have been avoided if the first officer issued dispensation from when the permit was due to commence. I wonder how many people have been told the same story but later receive a PCN. I never experienced this situation before.

Best Wishes,

If you are unhappy with what the call centre tells you, do as this person did and persist. If Crapita prove to be unresponsive then complain to the council, the only slight snag being that Crapita handle phone calls and you can't know without asking if the person you are speaking to is a Crapita or council employee. If you are unhappy with the level of service received you should complain as that is sometimes the only way to get organisations to improve.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Mr Mustard gets treated as a second class citizen

No fault by the Royal Mail - they deliver the paid for service

A few months back, Cllr David Longstaff, otherwise christened Goldenarse by Mrs Angry (not because he bears any resemblance to a James Bond character in Goldeneye but because of an acting part in his show reel which showed him with a gold painted posterior, sorry about the imagery) went to Coventry to the Crapita call centre at Coventry. Slightly naughty Mr Mustard tweeted the question as to whether the staff there had ever heard of the councillor (thinking they were sure not to have) and back came the reply that yes they had (well of course Goldenarse is so important they would have) and they had also heard of Mr Mustard which Mr Mustard thought was unlikely. It would have been wise though of the council to have given the call centre a list of VIPs (very irritating persons) which would have included the bloggers and local troublesome cafe and sweetshop owners, the BAPS committee members etc. but no, that would be too sensible.

Anyway, Mr Mustard collected a car (his first ever Mercedes, 4 years old & very nicely made) on 25 November as he is spending a lot of his life on motorways at the moment.

On 25 November he made a permit application and uploaded his insurance etc. documents.

On 26 November Mr Mustard was busy but no-one rang to say his application was accepted and he could pay now.

 

On 27 November at 18:40 (real work got in the way again) he paid on-line having checked for himself if his application had resulted in an "offer". Mr Mustard looked to see if he could print his permit out at home as he had been able to the previous year. The option had quietly disappeared which is a typical council trick whereas those people who had previously relied on this method should be told in advance. This page on the councils website still says you can

but council management tell Mr Mustard you can't (expect the website will be updated once this blog post is read by the council).

Just going back to 25 November for a moment, Mr Mustard phoned the parking department line, which is answered by Capita in Coventry, and asked if he could pay and for a dispensation. Mr Mustard couldn't pay as the documents weren't yet showing, apparently they take up to 24 hours to become visible on the server when that should really be instant in this day and age. Mr Mustard's ears pricked up (usually they just stick out) when he was told that he couldn't have a dispensation and he politely asked why not. Because now it is only for a change of vehicle or a change of address. Apparently last month too many were given out to residents who were not renewing their permits on time (could this be because the council aren't sending out reminders? cause and effect) and so they were giving out "too many dispensations". Mr Mustard having purchased a second vehicle was not in that category but still couldn't have one and yet since then a friend, a troublesome cafe owner, was late in renewing and was given one (and no, she didn't receive a reminder and yes, you do take your coffee in Cafe Buzz, N12 don't you?). Mr Mustard asked if the parking manager (meaning the Barnet Council one, knew about the new policy) and was then very helpfully given the name of the Capita Parking Services Manager which Mr Mustard has filed away for later use.

Mr Mustard was parked outside of the zone all this time which means he had a 10 minute walk to his car and back although it did mean that he met three ladies walking their dogs, one of whom was his neighbour and expressed surprise that Mr Mustard of all people wasn't given a permit, and one other lovely lady said "oh, you're that famous man aren't you" well, not in Coventry is all Mr Mustard can say.

Back to the calendar.

On 1 December the printed permit arrived at Mustard Mansions. It came with a letter dated 27 November in an envelope that was post-marked 28 November. It was sent second-class. Mr Mustard has paid £70 and expects first-class service at all times. Things got worse. The permit had an expiry date of 25 November which means that Mr Mustard had been short-changed by £1.15 worth of permit. Multiply that up by 12,000 permits a year and a nice profit is made for the council. Anyone who paid more slowly than Mr Mustard could have been robbed of more days of validity.

On 3 December Mr Mustard received the letter saying his application for a permit had been accepted. It was in a letter dated 27 November and again sent second class in an envelope post marked 1 December. What a palaver.

Needless to say Mr Mustard took his concerns up with the real parking management. They were not happy. They didn't seem to know that changes had been made and they think that permits should be sent out first class, that the permit should expire a year and two days after the posting of the permit, that on line printing should be made available but that would have to wait its turn in software development and other councils would also need to ask for such a function.

This function of permits was clearly out sourced in a half baked manner by the commissioners who possibly didn't know the subtle nuances of parking permit renewals. Parking itself, the thin client side (getting thinner with all the worry caused by having to answer to Mr Mustard?) are now on the case and when they update Mr Mustard with any good news, he will tell you.

Now just before you go why not pop outside and check the expiry date of your permit and then go here to renew if it has expired. You'll need to phone the council to get a PIN as clearly your renewal letter has not reached you.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

£16.1m Capita hardware investment - partly solved now

Mr Mustard works from home and so many neighbours have their parcels delivered to Mustard Mansions. Delivery drivers and the postman are so well acquainted with Mustard Mansions that they also go straight to Mr Mustard if a signature is needed and the intended recipient is out. So it was no surprise yesterday when, after having already delivered Mr Mustard's post (which included a PCN evidence pack of 100 pages that was in a cheap standard weight envelope that was splitting, come on NSL you could spend a few pounds on reinforced envelopes) the postman knocked 2 minutes later and Mr Mustard signed for an envelope that was post-marked Coventry. Ah, said Mr Mustard, that will be parking vouchers or a permit; I wondered, said the postman, as there are lots of them today. Perhaps Capita have now started to work through the backlog of permit applications.

Having paid Capita the substantial sum of £16.1m for investment in computer hardware the least we can expect is state of the art permit / voucher software and a same day turnaround? You would think so but Mr Mustard can reveal that the capital investment that has been made in the permit system, and he had to sneak into the Coventry office of Capita to get this exclusive photograph, is this:

The price of biros has evidently increased markedly.

Mr Mustard really did expect more for his £16.1m

Here is part of the address (mustn't breach the neighbour's data rights)

There isn't, of course, a Camarvon Rd in the London Borough of Barnet or even in the country, the road is called Carnarvon Rd. A local employee would probably have known this, a Coventry based one won't and this is part of what you lose when you deal with somewhere 100 miles away (Mr Mustard has nothing against Coventry per se but would prefer to retain local employment and knowledge).

We might be within the London Borough of Barnet and have an outer London phone number but we have an Enfield postcode and Hertfordshire is our postal county so to write London on this envelope was just plain wrong.

I can't show you the name but that had a single letter where a double was required.

So, a mere 3 errors in 4 lines. Remind Mr Mustard why Private Eye call Capita "Crapita".

Finally, Mr Mustard may not be being entirely fair. Maybe we did get more for our money than this lousy biro, 

maybe we got 2.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard