Barnet Council: Schools Parking Permit Consultation

For those of you, like Mr Mustard, who don't believe in placing your data on a US controlled server, here is the paper version of the survey.

Barnet Council's Schools Parking Permit Consultation by MisterMustard

Once downloaded, printed out and completed please send it to:

Paul Millard
London Borough of Barnet
Building 2
North London Business Park
London
N11 1NP

by 30 September please.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Once more unto the (data) breach

suitably blurred email address so the data breach is not repeated

When the email about consulting on teachers being allowed to have resident permits was sent out to hundreds of residents in batches of 50+ the email addresses of all recipients were put in the "to" box and so were visible to all the other parties, as the picture above to give you an idea of the number of email addresses. If the bcc box had been used there would not have been a data breach but it is an amateur way of going on as this sort of error is prone to occur (Mr Mustard met a friend the other day who had just recovered from a long operation and sent, he thought, a txt to a common aquantance with a report on how the patinet was recovering but accidentally txted it to the patient themselves, doh! Luckily it was not at all negative although the patient did suggest that Mr Mustard could have said he was "looking fabulous" - he will from now on even if he looks like death warmed up) and there is special software that can be purchased for customer contact and/or the mail merge functionality built into Outlook (and presumably in similar email software) could be used:

A schoolboy error having occurred the council response was to send round an email asking you to delete the message thus guaranteeing the exact opposite as it must be interesting if the council want you to get rid of it.

Dear Sir/Madam,

I refer to our email regarding the engagement for the introduction of a School Parking permit sent today.

We are aware that the email has gone out with other email addresses contained within the address list and sincerely apologise for this error.

We would ask that you kindly delete this email from your inbox and in your deleted items.

Again we apologise sincerely for this error which was caused by human error. The Council takes data protection responsibilities extremely seriously and this incident is now being investigated by our Information Management Team.

Again we apologise for this error.

Yours Sincerely,

On Behalf of Information Management

As to whether or not the council should report itself to the Information Commissioner, the council's view is this:

This incident is not of the level of severity that warrants reporting to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

A number of people were livid and emailed Mr Mustard. Mr Mustard thinks the data breach is a serious one due to the volume of email addresses involved. This isn't the first data breach that the council have perpetrated. At least one person (not Mr Mustard whose email addrees is well known so isn't really breached by publication) is reporting the council to the Information Commissioner.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Will preferential treatment stop at teachers?

The following email has just gone out to everyone on a council email database (probably gleaned from resident permit applications) which will be a separate story about a data breach in due course.

Dear Sir/Madam,

Barnet Council is currently consulting on introducing a schools parking permit scheme to help schools within the borough attract and retain staff. We would like to hear from you on the council’s proposals so please inform tell your school staff, parents and residents that this consultation is underway.

Reasons why the scheme is being proposed:

Barnet schools currently face a number of issues with the recruitment and retention of staff such as:

• we border inner London boroughs that offer higher weighting salaries

• neighbouring boroughs offer more help with housing and travel currently

• some neighbouring boroughs already offer schools parking permits .

Proposed parking permit overview.

The scheme the council is proposing would:

• seek to ensure residents can park as near to their home as possible by offering a maximum number of permits to a school based on the availability of parking spaces

• allow schools to determine which staff receives those parking permits

• Only allow schools that have a school travel plan in place to take part in the scheme.

Summary of proposed scheme

If a schools parking permit scheme was introduced it would allow schools that reside in a Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ) to offer parking permits to their staff.

The individual permits would only be valid:

• in particular streets and only where suitable capacity is available

• during term time

• Monday to Friday

To take part in the scheme the school would need to have a school travel plan in place.

To take part in the consultation visit:

https://engage.barnet.gov.uk/development-regulatory-services/schools-permit-consultation

The consultation is titled Barnet Council’s Schools Parking Permit Consultation and closes on 30 September 2015.

Barnet Council Schools Permit Consultation

Commissioning Group

Mr Mustard was aware that this consultation was coming as he was at the relevant committee meeting and this is what he said at it on this topic alone:

Thirdly, permits for school staff.

I am all in favour of maximising the usage of on-street car parking spaces. Adjacent to Ravenscroft Park in High Barnet there is 200m of residents parking which sits empty all day as houses are only on one side of the road. It could also offer free parking in the afternoons the same as on Hadley Common.

However, the idea of letting school staff (park) is one that needs to be treated with caution as even private profit making schools appear to be included. So a school employee could have a permit which would cost, I presume, the same amount as a resident's permit (with £40 being typical) but an employee of, say, a school stationery supplier, which might be in an adjacent building, would have to pay £525

I feel a judicial review coming on if you treat one group of employees more favourably the another.

Thank you.

and this is what a local business has to say on the matter:

Giving teachers permits would be absurd and completely to the detriment of the local economy. But then Barnet does not care for the local economy – it is something to be mined and exploited until it collapses.

Teachers are a net drain on the local economy. They tend to live outside the borough (if they did not then why permits?) and thus draw their salaries locally and spend them elsewhere.

Parking is a very scarce resource. Our local economy depends on shoppers to be able to park and to that end we have fought hard to re-align the parking in High Barnet and contain commuters to Fitzjohn Avenue car park. To fill the remaining places with teachers' cars would be an economic disaster. They say that it would only be allowed in designated CPZ areas but by doing that existing parking in those areas will be displaced. Many visitors to the High Street use the side streets as they simply will not embrace the current parking regime.

What makes teachers a special case? It would seem we cannot recruit into many areas of employment. What about doctors and nurses? And, hey, shop workers! In Maslow's hierarchy of needs education is way below food (but probably not sweets). We have to pay £525 for the privilege of parking our van that serves the people of Barnet. I rather think that WE should be given free permits!

All other occupations depend on employees commuting when they cannot employ from the local community. You have to ask why is this ‘perk’ necessary in the case of teachers. If their package is not attractive you have to look at remuneration.  To take a resource from somewhere else and give it away as a cheap (free as far as the council is concerned) solution is not the way to do things. The economic cost is simply being displaced – residents and businesses will bear the cost.

To argue that some other councils have implemented this ill-conceived policy as a reason for doing it in Barnet is simply a ridiculous argument – just because someone does something does not make it right.

This is positive discrimination towards one group (with delusions of grandeur) at the detriment of another group which is actually funding the economy.

If you don't want your road, near to a school, over-run with teachers' cars so that you can't get parked in the day, then you know what to do, complete the survey.

If, like Mr Mustard, you don't want your data going onto SurveyMonkey's US server then email Paul.Millard@Barnet.gov.uk for a paper copy to complete. Although you have until 30 September to get it in, the best day to act is today.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Environment Committee - Tuesday 27 January 2015 at 7pm

On Tuesday the Environment Committee will vote on the new Resident Permit charges which are now based on emissions and this is what officers are proposing, for the "first" car (the first one you have to renew under the new arrangements. If you can organise your lowest emissions car to be renewed first that will save you money).

Your electric car permit won't now cost anything (although this is an oddity as it must take the same amount of energy to move you in an all electric car; it's just that the emissions are where the electricity was generated)

Here are some new permits which Mr Mustard predicts there won't be a stampede to purchase. The council really must get away from the idea that they can soak businesses in cost and move towards wondering how they can make the life of businesses easier at reasonable cost in order to attract more businesses to Barnet.

If you want a space for a removals van outside your house try talking to your neighbours to see if you can organise space for the van between yourselves rather than paying these excessive amounts to the council

Mr Mustard doesn't see why teachers should get special treatment over any other type of employee within the borough, you can also have your say soon. If teachers are to be allowed permits then so should every other type of employee within a CPZ.

The latest money spinner is finally arriving, issuing penalties for moving traffic contraventions, or in the case of yellow box junctions, not moving when you should be.

It was back on 1 May 2012 that most of the staff who responded to challenges to PCN were made redundant when their jobs were moved to Croydon. Now 12 roles are coming back to Barnet (hurrah) (and assuming councillors vote in favour which seems likely) and hopefully this increased local knowledge will lead to better decisions being made. 

Mr Mustard promises to put the new team through their paces.

Be warned though, that the council intend to make a packet out of the new contraventions. You will need to up your driving game. Computers will watch your every move and miss nothing.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

p.s. your second car will be a flat rate £70 and not based on emissions at all, so you might as well order that 3.5 litre monster.