Democracy - an open letter to Barnet residents

Barnet Council on the Brink
The MetPro scandal, exposed by Barnet Bloggers, was a shocking case of incompetence and poor practice that continued over a period of several years. It placed vulnerable people at risk but it took local residents only a few weeks to uncover the problems. On Friday 4 November an equally serious issue was uncovered, again by a Barnet Blogger; an issue that runs to the very heart of democracy in Barnet and in Britain.

On 16 May this year Barnet Council applied to the Information Commissioner’s Office to complain about one particular blogger, to question whether they should be registered under the Data Protection Act and to ask if they had breached the act. The Information Commissioner’s website suggests that if such a situation exists you should “First, tell the organisation concerned and give it an opportunity to put things right. Many data protection problems can be solved quickly without us getting involved”. Did Barnet Council inform the blogger concerned? No, it simply submitted the complaint.

On 7 June the Information Commissioner’s Office responded that it did not consider that a blogger should be registered as a data controller and had therefore not breached the Data Protection Act. For most organisations that would have been sufficient and they would have left the matter there. Not Barnet Council. They responded on 23 June citing a European Court of Justice judgement, not something which just comes immediately to hand. Appealing a decision of the Information Commissioner’s Office is not a step taken lightly. Taking this action must have required approval from someone very senior at Barnet Council and possibly involved taking legal advice.

The Information Commissioner’s Office responded to Barnet Council on 11 July again rejecting the Council’s complaint. It went on to say in its reply:

“The balance of privacy versus freedom of expression relies on taking a proportionate approach. Requiring all bloggers to register with this office (ICO) and comply with the parts of the DPA exempted under Section 36 would, in our view, have a hugely disproportionate impact on freedom of expression”.

This incident comes on top of changes to the borough’s constitution limiting debate in Council meetings, imposing draconian new rules for residents forums and disbanding the only committee able to scrutinise the One Barnet programme.

For all that Eric Pickles, the Secretary of State for Communities, talks about the need for armchair auditors, the reality is that local councils, and in this case a solidly Conservative Council, see them as a nuisance and something to be disarmed at all costs. The fact that a local authority should have worked so hard to stop citizens exercising their legal right to ask questions should be something of great concern to every single voter in Barnet.

Over the last few years the Council has looked increasingly out of touch with the community in which we all live. In recent months this tendency has escalated. A much more strident approach has been adopted by the most senior managers and cabinet members, an approach which is becoming unsustainable. The Bloggers of Barnet recognise that there are thousands of hard working council staff struggling to deliver good quality service whilst under immense pressure to cut costs and worrying whether their jobs are about to be privatised or deleted altogether. These people deserve our praise and recognition. It is the very top layer, the officers and consultants on six figure salaries and the Cabinet elite that work with them, that are the problem.

We call upon the Council leader to pause for reflection, for councillors to re-engage with their residents, and senior officers and councillors to start listening to citizens. This should include:

· The Council setting out in a public document fully and clearly what the One Barnet programme means for residents;
· Publishing all currently secret One Barnet reports;
· Allowing in-house team bids for all services;
· Stop putting out false information about bloggers; and
· Relax the rules and allow residents to ask any questions they like at the Residents Forums.

Failure to do so will lead to a Council that is completely isolated from the majority of residents in Barnet and one that ultimately will fail.

Signed

Derek Dishman
John Dix
Vicki Morris
Theresa Musgrove
Roger Tichborne

Halliford Associates Ltd - Mr Travers only worked one day in 1st quarter ?!

Well well. 

Mr Mustard has been going through the April, May & June 2011 lists from Barnet Council that they call Vendor Payments and Commitments over £500. The description is a cop-out as what the government asked to be published was all spending over £500. Now Mr Mustard thinks that the easiest and most logical way to do that it to list all actual payments of over £500 and in fact Barnet Council really think that too as their webpage about this says :-

Spending over £500 is published as part of a drive to improve openness and transparency.

During the financial quarter July to September 2010 £ 95 million was paid to vendors on a huge variety of items including care homes, agency staff and utility bills.

For reasons of privacy payments to individuals including foster carers, children’s and adult carers are not included in the list. Payments made via CHAPS e.g. repayment of loans, funding to schools, housing benefit payments and payments taken directly from our bank account (excluding agency costs) are not included either.

So one expects the list to contain payments but it includes goods received notes, duplications, reversals and is consequently almost unusable and certainly not reliable. My fellow blogger Mr Reasonable has already pointed this out a little while ago. Mr Mustard expects that Mr Eric Pickles MP has already noticed this and one of his assistants will be contacting Barnet Council to get this put right.

Now Mr Mustard has just noticed that in the 3 months ended 30 June 2011 Mr Travers only qualified for a payment of £1,000, yes I know, just one day's work.

What can have happened. Some possible answers:-

1. Mr Travers agrees he is overpaid and is working for almost nothing in that quarter to help balance the budget and make the bloggers happy.
2. He left and we didn't notice ?
3. Mr Mustard cannot read 3 spreadsheets accurately.
4. The Inland Revenue, as was, have been round and Mr Travers is now an employee on PAYE.
5. He volunteered to become an employee after all possibly in order to neatly sidestep the OJEU problem of his contract not being advertised.
6. He only worked one day and we didn't notice.
7. The list is just plain wrong. Now that would be a travesty.

It is half past midnight and Mr Mustard wants to sleep so he will post this blog and go off to bed and who knows by the time he gets up, not very early, the answer will have been put in the comments box by a kind Barnet Council employee. If not that will be another Freedom of Information request to be sent off. Is it any wonder Barnet Council why you get so many?

 

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Free speech & Freedom of Information - The computer says no.

Freedom of speech 

It seemed to Mr Mustard that today was a good day to write his piece about the charade that is now the Residents' Forums as it was today that Cllr Denial Daniel Thomas refused to allow a resident, Mr Gordon Kerr, to speak to the Cabinet Resources Committee on 28 July 2011. They are only words councillor, you really should listen to residents a little more. The story can be found here in the local Times newspaper.

Mr Mustard can only conclude Mr Kerr that the councillor has accidentally confused you with a troublemaker rather than an interested and concerned local resident.

Oh dear, Mr Mustard has just performed a google search of Mr Kerr and look what he found.

Claremont Road

Good photograph Mr Kerr - you look just like an eloquent & decent law abiding citizen; I cannot imagine why you are being danieled your chance to speak. Mr Reasonable will be speaking. I think what you need Mr Kerr is a respectable nickname and that will fool the democratic services officer. You know in One Barnet speak that good is bad ( very childish really ) and so you should perhaps call yourself Mr Meekandmild and then you will get heard. Why they let Mrs Angry speak is because she is a lady and so you could try a blonde wig and call yourself Miss Goodtime?

Freedom of information

Mr Mustard loves the Freedom of Information Act. He gets the feeling that the Council are not quite so keen on it as they try every trick they can think of to reply late, partially or not at all. Mr Mustard has news for you Barnet Council, he was chasing debt when many of you were still in nappies ( what's that Mrs Angry - some of the older councillors are in nappies - you are so naughty ) and there probably aren't any tricks that you can pull that will fool Mr Mustard and don't forget he has Mr Pickles on his side - not a man to cross one would imagine.

Mr Mustard loves the Freedom of Information Act so much that he uses it every day. Now some Councils don't mind. Mr Mustard asked Hackney Council for a copy of their May Gurney contract and they just sent it to him straight away, no crossings out ( very poshly called redacting ) no drama ( we love drama in Barnet don't we readers, what with the actors, disc jockeys, comedians and disappearing acts - although not so much that the Council supports the ArtsDepot any longer ) and isn't the comparison with the Barnet Contract going to make an interesting blog readers, oh yes it is. The May Gurney contract had so many crossings out that it looked like a bad drawing by a 3 year old but after an appeal Barnet Council decided that they could tell Mr Mustard just about everything that he wanted to know as it is his money they are frittering away after all.

Now get back to the subject Mr Mustard. Oh yes democracy that was it. Mr Mustard sent an email to foi@barnet.gov.uk asking

Please send me a copy of the rules of public engagement that were handed out at the residents' Forums last week

Please send them in .doc format

As this is such a simple request I hope that it will not take 20 days for you to answer.

Here is the reply:-

click and click again for larger versions & use the back key to return

So there you have it, a list of what you can't raise and what actions might take place of which the first one is "nothing at all" being the most likely answer it is first.

Now Mr Mustard thought that the amount of information provided was a bit sparse and he was unfortunately tired and emotional on the evening of the first new lack-of-style Residents' Forums, Barnet One Speak for we have to have these meetings but I'll be buggered if any resident is going to get anything out of them.

So he asked a more conscientious and sober blogger to provide him with the papers handed out that evening and here they are:-

you can ask little questions on issues that your Councillor should already have dealt with

is "doing nothing" a course of action? Debate - 300 words please

if we only let you raise matters one every 6 months they will fade away

comments are reported to the decision maker who then ignores them completely

ooh, do nothing, again. Aren't we busy doing nothing

does anyone understand anything on this page ?

loads of tosh about powerless Partnerships

tosh, drivel, baloney, hogwash, One Barnet speak

Now isn't that funny readers; the guff handed out at the meeting is different to the guff sent in response to an FOI request. All perfectly innocent of course.

Now what are the questions that any resident is likely to want to ask about:-

MetPro 

Pinkham Way

One Barnet

Staff redundancies

Icelandic banks

Libraries

Church Farmhouse Museum

Hendon FC

Legionella

Sandbanks Hotel

Councillor allowances

Mr Mustard thinks you will find that the computer says no to all of these major issues. If you want to ask why a single paving slab is broken in the High St then you will be welcomed with open arms.

Democracy - One Barnet style.

For a very funny ( except it's serious when democracy dies ) you need to read this guest blog on Mr Reasonable's site.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard