Buy Private Eye !

Ooh Mr Mustard is ordering us about; he doesn't normally do that. What reason can there be? Well it is because today he is in Private Eye issue 1302.

Hello Barnet Council

So that is a good reason to buy the magazine today.

What good reason is there to buy the magazine on any other day?

Well, for a start, it is a bargain £1.50 and there is so much material in the magazine that it will keep you amused until the next issue comes around.

The front page cartoons are legendary. The whole magazine is hilarious (except when it is being serious - not very often) it will shorten your commute.

You will be better informed about what goes on in the country.

Why not ask your partner to get you a subscription for Christmas. Only £28 - there will be enough money left over for some socks as well.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Some flowers would be nice

On the Famous Five Barnet Bloggers website is the list of all gifts and hospitality for the council tax year ended 31 March 2011. Now Mr Mustard has eaten his fair share of corporate lunches in the past ( his co-Director used to say his job description was to eat and drink for the company! ) and still has the odd one now and then. The lunches ( usually dinners but lets not be picky ) are with existing clients and are meant to be a fun night out for everyone and work is barely talked about. It's a chance for each party to get to know the other side a bit better in order to make working together more pleasant. So, don't go getting the idea that Mr Mustard is a boring old fart who is against having a good time and objects to all gifts & hospitality, because he doesn't.

What Mr Mustard does expect to see though is openness & transparency in the record of who was entertained by whom. Barnet Council won't release details of lower paid employees who have been entertained, even ones earning £50,000. That is wrong as if you are important enough to enjoy a £50 dinner then it shouldn't only be the supplier who knows who you are. Many gifts were from people grateful about what the council did and we certainly don't need to know who gave a box of chocolates to a helpful employee who went the extra mile; although they should be entered in the Employee of the Month awards ( is there such a thing? ).

Every department keeps a record in accordance with the code of conduct:

In the course of our work you may occasionally be offered gifts or hospitality by contractors, consultants, clients or other members of the public. In some instances, accepting such gifts could place you in a serious predicament, open to allegations of corruption, and to disciplinary proceedings. In order for you to know what is acceptable, and to protect you from such allegations, the Council has adopted the following policy:

It is essential that all employees are open, and not secretive in their relationships with outside agencies.

All gifts and hospitality must be recorded in writing, immediately on receipt, in a book or register kept for this purpose within the Directorate / section / establishment.

Minor gifts, e.g. calendars, diaries, stationery items, need not be recorded.

Where small gifts such as a bottle of wine, food, confectionery, etc are offered, these can be accepted, provided they are recorded as above, and not kept for personal use, but shared with colleagues or residents/users (e.g. of a social services' establishment).

Gifts of higher value, e.g. cases of spirits, clothes, holiday discounts, electrical equipment, must not be accepted and, if received, should be returned to the sender.

Cash must on no account be accepted.

Employees must not, on a personal basis, take advantage of discounts which have been negotiated by the Council with its suppliers for the purchase of goods, materials or services, unless the discount has been negotiated specifically as a benefit available to all employees.

Hospitality in the form of drinks and meals can be accepted when provided in the course of normal business - e.g. lunch at a contractor's expense during a business meeting or function, provided that they are recorded in writing as above. Employees must be aware of the need to take care, when alcohol is offered, to ensure that their ability to take decisions and to drive vehicles is not impaired.

Invitations to prestige sporting events, such as Wimbledon, and other occasions such as theatre, opera, or weekend breaks must not be accepted.

No gifts or hospitality are to be accepted from contractors who are submitting a tender during a tendering period.

Gifts and hospitality, when accepted, should be acknowledged by a letter of thanks to be placed on file.

Records may be inspected by Members, and will be subject to check by Internal Audit.

Employees providing personal care, such as Care Workers, Home Helps and Wardens of sheltered housing accommodation can sometimes be offered jewellery, money or other gifts, or bequests of substantial value by clients.

When dealing with elderly or confused clients, employees - if they accept such gifts - are placing themselves in a particularly vulnerable position.

Any offers of such gifts or bequests from clients, or other members of the public, must be reported immediately in writing to the Chief Officer (or an officer nominated to act on his/her behalf) for instruction.

There are certain groups of employees (e.g., Enforcement Officers, Purchasing Officers) for whom it would be inappropriate to receive any gifts or hospitality in view of the nature of their work. Any such employees will be notified in writing by the Director of the rules which apply.

Failure to adhere to the above will be regarded as gross misconduct and could lead to dismissal. 

One would think that as the register is required to be kept under the Code of Conduct it would be rapidly supplied if requested under Freedom of Legislation. Well, you would be wrong.

Mr Mustard made the request on 20 June 2011.

A first reply was received on 18 July ( possibly deliberately held up to the 20 day deadline )

Mr Mustard rather expected it to name the giver and it didn't so he asked for that information on 24 July.

On 16 November Mr Mustard finally received a response ( with an apology for lateness ) but the name of any recipient below the level of Head of Service / AD was refused. Mr Mustard has asked for the column of value to be properly completed but it can't be done now. It is mostly blank which is completely unacceptable. Was the bottle of wine worth £5 or £1,000? we are entitled to know.

Now Mr Mustard is going to analyse the gifts and hospitality for you directorate by directorate. First, alphabetically, "Adults" as it was described by which I think it means Adult Social Services.

A completely staggering 2 gifts have been declared for Adults.

A Food Hamper ( value not listed ) on 7 December 2010 from Pashun Outreach Services Ltd. Who received the hamper is not shown so it was presumably given to someone below Head of Service level and the contents should have been shared out as per the code of conduct. If you know what happened to the hamper please send Mr Mustard an email ( in confidence of course ).

The second gift was a box of Terry's All Gold. Giver not noted so probably a service user and recipient not noted but not relevant as in most offices these get put near the kettle and scoffed by everyone.

Now what is even more interesting is who didn't get any gifts and who didn't give any.

Who held the top 4 posts at Xmas 2010 ( the main season for gifts and hospitality )  and what did they receive?

Lovely dahlias at Aylett Nursery

Kate Kennally

Acting Assistant Director - Adult Social Services

Received? : nothing, not even a bunch of flowers.

Alison Kemp

Associate Assistant Director - Partnerships & Planning

Received? : nothing, not even a bunch of flowers.

Glynnis Joffe

Acting Deputy Director - Adult Social services

Received? : nothing, not even a bunch of flowers.

Matthew Kendal 

Assistant Director - Transformation and Resources

Received? : nothing, not even a bunch of flowers.

So to summarize: no flowers, no bottles of wine or spirits, no posh dinners, no tickets to any event, no boxes of chocolates, no hampers, no Amazon vouchers, no free trips to the Sandbanks Hotel, no holidays in Morphou, no anything whatsoever. Now this is possible but to Mr Mustard's mind it isn't likely, unless an edict went out from the top that no-one was to accept anything whatsoever. Who knows? you do. I am sure you will let me know if any of these above highly paid officers were seen in restaurants tucking into Chateaubriand and a good claret and not reaching for their credit cards at the end of the meal with a supplier or potential supplier or seen loading boxes of wine and hampers into the boot of their car.

Now as to suppliers, the following are some of the ones who raked in the most money in the year.

Eversheds, Solicitors £160,000

Hays ( staff supply ) £788,000

Morgan Hunt Public Sector £25,000

Sodexho Healthcare £452,000

Whitehall Consultants (UK) Ltd £108,000

and none of those gave any declarable gift or hospitality to anyone in Adult Social Services if the registers are to be believed.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

One Barnet = No space to park

It is Saturday when Mr Mustard normally rests and has personal things to do. I still do have to dig up my potatoes ( that bit of the boring blog was true ) but some wag has sent me this picture of two people directing traffic in a private car park and suggested that it could be depicting the Chief Executive, Nick Walkley & friend.

no space to park at NLBP

Nonsense thought Mr Mustard, non-stick Nick is on £200,000 a year, he has much more important things to do with his time than worry about parking spaces, the following for example:

The consultation on the Business Plan & Budget for 2012 to 2015.

The survey about Adults Social Care.

The One Barnet programme to outsource everything possible,

and last but not least why the council decided in June to go on the offensive and try to secretly attack Mr Mustard via the office of the Information Commissioner for not registering under the Data Protection Act ( when he didn't need to ). If this attack, which drew on European Law (Case C-101/01 Criminal Proceedings against Bodil Lindvist ("ECJ Case C-101/01) which goes back to 2004, had been successful then every blogger in the land would have had to be registered or stop blogging to avoid a fine. One would think that the council might have stopped to wonder why every blogger who had started blogging since 2004 had not registered?

This reflection would include their very own Councillor Robert Rams whose rather dry blog is mostly about Barnet Council but also about other matters not related to his private and family life. 

Rams is registered under the DPA ( like all councillors ) in order to deal with the business of his constituents but not for any other reason, so not for blogging.

Mr Mustard notices that Rams first blogged on 3 March a whole week before Mr Mustard who started on 10 March. Why on earth didn't Barnet Council go for him first; does anyone have any idea?

Now back to the thorny parking problem. Mr Mustard has been sent the weekly message from more than one source and here it is.

---

From: First Team
Sent: 18 November 2011 14:40
To: AllStaff
Subject: Weekly message from the Chief Executive

The matter that has filled my inbox and conversations with staff this week has been parking at NLBP. As someone who travels to NLBP by public transport it’s not an issue I experience first hand, but the combination of more staff on site and greater use of the conference facilities has created a real problem.

I also know that a small number of staff are now parking in side streets. It’s clearly not acceptable for us to be inconveniencing our residents, so action needs to be taken.

First Team will set out the short-term actions agreed to ease parking pressure but we also now need to find a longer-term solution. The challenge is to find a solution that ensures:

staff are not redirected to side-streets
the cost to the taxpayer for staff parking is minimised

staff who need a car as part of providing effective public services are able to go about their business efficiently.

I doubt this is a problem that has one easy solution (and it’s worth reflecting that our car parking provision is greater than most councils) so we intend to work through a series of options and measures to see if we can find a sustainable solution.

First Team will have more detail on Monday and we will keep you informed as proposals are worked up.

Nick

---

If anyone had the right to be "worked up" this week it was Mr Mustard, but when the failed secret ICO mission was uncovered he wasn't worried as he could pay the proposed fine and really he just thought it a bit sad that the council had resorted to such steps. It has been described by him as a curious episode and has left him bemused and wondering what the next trick will be.

Anyway, enough about Mr Mustard. Back to the weekly ra ra message ( or is it a brrm brrm message this week ? ).

Mr Mustard thinks that staff are more worried about losing their jobs or being pushed into a call centre which isn't fit for purpose. The idea that a call centre can deal with council tax, exemptions, council tax benefit, council tax summonses and liability orders, adult social services, parking tickets, recycling, rubbish collection etc etc etc  is just unworkable. The call centre will have to be segmented like an orange ( a lemon really, but they don't have segments ) and then it won't be a call centre. It will be a collection of specialist departments sitting in one room.

The thing is that staff probably don't or won't talk to the Chief Executive about the insecurity of their jobs and the whole One Barnet outsourcing nonsense as he doesn't listen ( is what I am told ) and he is hardly likely to drop One Barnet because a few, or even loads of, staff ask him to. That is just to mark yourself out as a troublemaker and find yourself by some mysterious coincidence looking at a P45.

I suppose the Chief Executive wants some brownie points for going to work by public transport. Mr Mustard's question is how does he then get to meetings? chauffeur driven car, taxis, the bus, cadges a lift from staff? Mr Mustard expects that someone will answer this question in the comments box.

If there is greater use of the conference facilities then isn't extra income coming in which would cover the cost of the extra parking spaces that the college no longer use, or are there just more pointless meetings?

If a "small number" of staff are parking in side roads then why is this such a huge problem that needs the attention of the Chief Executive? ( surely the staff are parking considerately where there happens to be a space which is unrestricted and available to any member of the public ). The biggest problem with parking is that the council increased the cost of residents' permits from £40 to £100 ( for the first car ) and for visitor vouchers from £1 to £4. Now that's what Mr Mustard calls a problem and it was one of the two reasons why he started this blog.The other was that Residents Forums are so undemocratic.

Here is a simple way to reduce costs to cover the cost of renting extra parking spaces ( and how long before North London Business Park is devoid of people once the outsourcers have moved all the jobs to Bangalore ) is for executive pay to be capped at £100,000. Job done.

A typical Barnet Council statement. "Our car parking provision is greater than most councils". A statement for which no supporting figures were provided or could easily be found on the Internet.

More detail on Monday. Mr Mustard can't wait.

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

A posting that would meet with the approval of Barnet Council

As you know Barnet Council reported Mr Mustard to the Information Commissioner for not being registered under the Data Protection Act. They said that as I was not registered I could only blog about personal, family or household matters, yes really, see below.

click to enlarge, back to return

Now as Mr Mustard is a law abiding sort of person he has written today's blog in that vein. Here it is.

---

What I did today

Today I rose bright and early. I went to the paper shop and bought the Guardian. As the paper shop keep Private Eye on the counter the joke caught my eye and so I bought that as well, only £1.50. Then I remembered that I was out of milk and I don't like black tea so I bought some milk as well ( semi skimmed - skimmed milk is like water that has been coloured white and gold top will give you a heart attack ). The bill came to £4.60. I paid with an old grubby £5 note and received three 10p coins and two 5p coins in change. It really annoys me when the shopkeeper gives me stupid little coins, I would have much preferred two 20p coins, but I suppose he can only give me what he has, or wants to get rid of. When I got home I made a cup of tea and put on some porridge. I make it with half milk and half water and it only takes a few minutes to make and keeps me going all morning. The doorbell went and one of the neighbours dropped in. They had a cup of tea, no biscuit because they are fattening and middle-aged spread is starting to set in (me and them). They told me they had ordered something on-line and it would be coming me to as I am usually at home. The parcel delivery companies know to come to number 239; they often come here with parcels for other houses in the road even when there isn't a note on other people's doors to do so. After 15 minutes talking about the weather and a possible visit to the pub to do the quiz on Thursday evening at The Lord Nelson the neighbour left to go to the garden centre and then their allotment. I remembered I still had my potatoes in the ground and it was time to get them out before the frosts start. I found my fork and started digging. I thought about my girlfriend who wants one of those special forks for digging potatoes up. They have a ball shape on the end of the tines as otherwise no matter how careful you are you always stick the fork through the biggest potato and with the price of food in the shops nowadays you can't afford to waste food. Maybe I will buy her one of these special forks for Christmas ( overly romantic I know ) Some of the potatoes have gone green because the soil on top of them has been washed away. Green sections of potato are poisonous and should not be eaten, peel those sections away or cut them off. I was a bit tired after I had done all of that digging so I came indoors and sat down and had another cup of tea and a cheese and onion sandwich using red onions I had grown myself. Red onions are harder to grow than white ones and they tend to be a little sweeter which makes them perfect for use in sandwiches. Then I went into the dining room where my meccano scale model of Tower Bridge needs some time spending on it. One tower is complete and I am just starting on the second one. I could go on but no-one would read a blog like this, would they?

---

Now imagine that Barnet Council ruled the world. How interesting a place would it be? The above blog would not have any readers, now would it? and the secret machinations of Barnet Council would remain secret which is, of course, just how they like it. 

Others have written far more eloquently than Mr Mustard on this attempt by Barnet Council to silence a blogger and which would have had enormous repercussions for freedom of speech throughout the land. I recommend that you read David Hencke's blog and that of The Liberal Conspiracy here and Crash Bang Wallace here and the FOI documents are here.

If you are unhappy with the behaviour of Barnet Council then you can tell the Chief Executive by emailing him at this link or the Leader of the Council on this link. Mr Mustard has not yet written to complain as he is still waiting to find out which person started the ball rolling and who it was who authorised the complaint to the ICO as well as the legal power which the council were operating under. I am sure that the Chief Executive and the Leader would both be pleased to hear from you.

I also promise that the next blog post will not be a load of made-up boring rubbish about the life of Mr Mustard ( which is actually very full and exciting ).

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

The One Barnet Partnership Board

Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb

( Picture credit : herbalremedies )

One Barnet is probably the most fundamental and far-reaching change programme ever undertaken in Barnet. Probably only 1% of the residents of Barnet, who are funding it, have heard of it. There has been no meaningful consultation and no presentation of it by the Leader of the council. It is being progressed as quietly as possible and yet it might mean that hundreds of jobs could leave Barnet and end up in Bangalore ( Mr Mustard has nothing against Bangalore - it's just a name that goes well with Barnet and lots of jobs are out-sourced to India ).

Update 08:21 - someone has landed on this blog from Tamil Nadu in India, only 200 miles from Bangalore, after searching for 

"daniel seal + assistant cabinet member  + barnet" 

so maybe there have been some enquiries in India.

Firstly you need to understand the management structure of One Barnet ( if you do, please let everyone at the council know what it is ! )

click to enlarge; back to return

So here are the minutes of the March 2011 meeting of the One Barnet Partnership Board which according to Robert Rams' blog meets every 2 or 3 months ( I won't give you a link - if you really want to look at his blog you will have to find it yourself - it really isn't advisable ).

Was this a really productive use of so many people's time ?

Why has this board not met since March 2011 ?

Why were the minutes secret until March ?

Why are all Councillors not invited to attend if they so wish ?

Mr Mustard sent in the following questions under the Freedom of Information legislation.

---

Dear Sirs

I see from Cllr Rams's (sic) blog that the OBPB meets every 2 or 3 months.

The latest minutes on the council website are from March 2011.

Has the OBPB met since then please?

If it has please send me a copy of the minutes now that they are a public document.

If the OBPB has not met since March 2011 what is the date of the next meeting please?

I have struggled through much of the Constitution without finding the rules for the conduct of the OBPB. Please can you point me at the correct section of the constitution or website page.

Are the meetings open to the public & if not, why not?

Are the meetings open to all councillors?

Thank you for your assistance

Yours sincerely

---

and here is the reply

1. The OBPB has not met since March 2011. There are no scheduled future dates at the moment. Partnership arrangements are currently under review and the cabinet Forward Plan includes an item scheduled for the 14 December 2011 Cabinet ; Committee Papers.

2. The OBPB is the current name of Barnet's Local Strategic Partnership (LSP). ( would you have worked that out; Mr Mustard would not have ) Article 10 of the Constitution includes information on the LSP.

3. Government guidance on LSPs and their constitutional status (Here at the Communities department) does not specify whether meetings should be open to the public. The meetings are not at present open to the public, nor to all Councillors, unless specifically invited. However it was agreed in January 2011 that minutes should be published. ( Mr Mustard keeps hearing how "Open and Transparent" Barnet Council are. If that truly is the case these meetings should be open to the all councillors and the public. Secret meetings are bad. )

Mr Mustard believes in simple management structures. This looks like one layer that could be removed without any ill effect.  After all, it has done nothing for 8 months. 

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Putting Barnet's Businesses First - or last ?

Do you remember 2009? Especially 21 October 2009? No! Well that was the day on which the Cabinet met and discussed the recession in Barnet. Here is the report that they came out with ( they probably expect that everyone has forgotten about it )

Here is the link

http://committeepapers.barnet.gov.uk/democracy/reports/reportdetail.asp?ReportID=8578

and here in Scribd

Responding to the Recession in Barnet

So, back in 2009 Barnet Council were worried about the effect of the recession on small and medium sized businesses ( page 20 ).

So what were they doing?

Piloting parking initiatives - putting up prices and making it hard to pay since then. 

Leader listens - not the current one! programme abandoned.

Business Support Officer - These seem to exist in several departments. Mr Mustard notices that, after a google search, he found 3 vacant posts with this title in the One Barnet department. If there are any Business Support Officers who are supporting business in Barnet please do let Mr Mustard know.

Section 106 - Mr Mustard has a list of the S106 contributions due and paid or not. He will have to stick in another FOI request to see whether developers are actually being asked to buy locally. Any bets that the answer will be none at all?

Prompt payment to business - You have to laugh. Barnet Council say they were paying 97% of suppliers within the agreed 30 day contract terms. They were paying MetPro without even having a contract. Over a £1m !

Business Rate Relief - Doubtless this is underwritten by central Government or else Barnet would not be so keen on it.

Small Business Rate Relief

Reduction of street parking charges - The ones that have recently been increased ! Any initiatives for Xmas 2011? Mr Mustard hasn't seen any. Free after 3pm ? Not in 2011.

Move forward 2 years and just think about parking.

With the death of parking by the simple expedient of putting cash into a parking meter there will shortly be 3 ways of paying for parking in Barnet.

Method 1. Register with Verrus and pay by credit or debit card. Verrus will receive a commission of 5%. You need a mobile phone for this one otherwise please go somewhere else. It also costs more because of the cost of the phone call or text. Mmm. Could that be the basis of a legal challenge?

Method 2. Pay at a PayPoint shop. PayPoint will charge 5%, minimum 15p ( so 15% on a £1 charge ).

Method 3. Buy a scratchcard (soon) from a library or a local shop. This is covered in the DPR. 1493 which you can download here or can look at in Scribd in the box below:

DPR 1493 Scratch Cards Barnet Council

So look at paragraph 2.1.

The addition of a further method of payment for on and off street parking is expected to encourage the use of town centre parking in the borough. If shopkeepers purchase a supply of parking scratch cards they can offer this to their customers. It is possible that shopkeepers may wish to include a 'convenience cost' to the cards which the Council cannot be held responsible for.

If local shops want to supply these scratch cards then they won't get a penny in commission from the council for buying in bulk and paying in advance. They have to sell a scratchcard to their customer with a value of £2 and say £2.10 or £2.20 please ? It isn't going to work now is it? Why should a shopkeeper stock anything from which he/she does not make a profit? If the shopkeeper added 10p to the cost of your daily paper you would complain; why won't people complain about a surcharge if such an extra charge is demanded? Is this discriminatory against those people who don't have a mobile phone?

So the simple summary is that if you are mega-corporation you get 5% from the Council.

If you are Mr Corner Shop of Barnet, you are on your own.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard