One Barnet, up for sale: Welcome to the House of Fun

Well, then: here is good news.

Barnet employees were sent an email, at the end of this week, by the senior management of Broken Barnet, informing them of the latest developments in the pimping of council services to would be private company contractors.

Here is an extract. Mrs Angry's comments are in red:

"We’ve now finished our first round of dialogue meetings and the whole dialogue team is enthused about the energy and commitment that bidders have put into the process so far...

Why, you might wonder, would bidders not be brimming over with energy and commitment to a process that will throw an abundance of profits into the laps of the successful applicant? Ah: unless ... let's see ...

Round two begins next week and will focus on financial and commercial issues. The first round of due diligence meetings also finished this week. At these meetings, bidders asked James Wills-Fleming detailed questions about how the corporate programmes function is structured and run.

Cast your mind back, citizens, to the recent strike, the letters sent to staff by senior management, the giant posters installed, Big Brother style, in council offices: at the end of that week another 'market day' took place attended by companies interested in tendering for Barnet outsourced services. Is this a coincidence?

Interestingly, Mrs Angry has had endless numbers of visits to this blog by certain outsourcing companies keen to learn more about the state of play, here in Broken Barnet - and, ha ha - researching the profiles of certain senior officers involved in the outsourcing process ...

As mentioned previously, seven bidders were invited to participate in the dialogue process. We now have four bidders because three - Avarto UK, CSC Computer Sciences UK and IBM - withdrew prior to their first meeting.

Oh dear: three bidders dropped out ... was it something we said?

Funny about IBM, especially. Is it that One Barnet is really becoming too toxic for some companies to touch? But don't worry: there are still four clients sitting on the sofa, waiting to see what we have to offer their jaded appetites ...

The four we met with this week are BT, (well f*ck me, who would have thought it?) Capita, (never!) HCL Axon consortium (who? Tender fodder? Ah, seems they are awfully keen on SAP systems - you're in luck here in Broken Barnet, friends ...) and Serco (yawn ... no surprise there ... ) While the withdrawal of any bidder is regrettable, it is common in competitive dialogue. (Running away as fast their little legs can carry them ...) Their decisions were strongly influenced by the amount of time, commitment and resource that companies have to commit to the competitive dialogue process, and other competing commercial opportunities. (Aha. Mmm. Didn't want to risk their spotless reputations for a night of passion in Broken Barnet.)

Each of the three companies gave the council positive feedback about the way we have run the process." (Thanks, but - oh, look, is that the time, suddenly remembered a prior engagement - made their excuses and left, NOTW style.

Please: Tory councillors of Broken Barnet, those of you that still retain any integrity - wake up and see what is happening, right in front of you.

When Richard Cornelius was elected leader of Barnet Council, some people were under the naive impression that his mistrust of the One Barnet programme would encourage him to take action to stop it, and save us all from being a hostage to the fortunes of outsourcing, seeing our local services torn away, out of our control, in the name of 'savings' that we know will never materialise. We hear now, however, that Tory backbenchers wanting to discuss this issue with him have not been given the opportunity, and are becoming ... rather resentful. Oh dear, Mr Cornelius ...

Who, in fact, is responsible for the disaster waiting to happen that this massive externalisation of services represents? Just a handful of Cabinet members, whose lack of judgement stems entirely from their lack of experience in business, in politics, in life: ideologues with no common sense- and no political instinct. Oh - and Brian Coleman, whose loss at next year's GLA elections will, we predict, be nicely assisted by his failure to stick a spanner in the works of the One Barnet machine ...

When the next local elections come around, if One Barnet and the massive scale of outsourcing goes through, many of the Tory councillors currently failing to speak out against the programme will face the consequences and lose their seats. Residents will by then be seeing the results of the externalisation of services they have always taken for granted as the reponsibility of the local authority. They will be paying the increased charges, and worrying about the future of their family's well being in a world run to the benefit of profit, at the expense of everything that is in the best interest of our community.

The Tory councillors of Broken Barnet still have the chance to do something about the dreadful fate ahead of us all. Clearly they care little about, or fail to understand, the implications of all this One Barnet shite for the residents of our borough, but if they are worried about their own futures, perhaps even they may see that it is time to stand up and be counted. Are they going to wrest back control of this borough from the senior management team they employ to administer this borough, or are they going to sit back and write their own political death warrants?

Let's see, shall we?

Pimp my past: Broken Barnet Tories sell our museum

Church Farmhouse Museum, now closed, ruthlessly cleared of annoying visitors, exhibitions, and all historical artefacts, and presenting an exciting development opportunity for some lucky purchaser.


Tonight at 7pm our Tory councillors will meet for the latest Cabinet Resources meeting. As this committee consists of no opposition members, it is of course a rubber stamping exercise, and all proposals will be voted through by a posse of hard line One Barnet ideologues, namely: chair Daniel Thomas, supported by Leader Richard Cornelius, Brian Coleman, Sachin Rajput, Andrew Harper and Robert Rams.

Amongst the proposals on the agenda tonight is Item 7 - the agreement to sell Church Farmhouse Museum.

This magnificent listed seventeenth century building and its substantial grounds have been in the ownership of the people of Broken Barnet since 1944, when it was purchased for them by the former Middlesex County Council. As the council's own website describes:

'Church Farmhouse Museum in Hendon is one of the oldest surviving dwelling houses in the borough of Barnet.

It was built in about 1660 and was the centre of a busy dairy and hay making farm until the first half of the previous century.

The museum has a furnished 1820s kitchen with adjoining laundry room, a bake oven, a huge fireplace and a stone flagged floor. The 1850s dining room has panelling from an earlier period and the rest of the house is full of interest, from the distinctive chimney to the unusual layout.'

As the name suggests, the farm is associated with the neighbouring ancient church of St Mary's, a wonderful building with an impressive graveyard, said to have been the inspiration for Bram Stoker when describing the resting place of Lucy Westenra in 'Dracula'. (The jaded, blood sucking bodies of the undead still stalk the streets of Broken Barnet, and tonight several of them will be sitting around the corner in the Town Hall, flogging off the Church Farmhouse.)

For decades the museum has specialised in the most remarkable series of exhibitions, on local and wider themes too. This, as well as the permanent collection, has drawn visitors from a wide background of the community and from beyond the borough, serving as a vital historical resource for school parties, but also serving in other ways, such as providing reminiscence sessions for older residents in care.

When Mrs Angry was small, she was often taken to the Museum, and particularly remembers a schooltrip to see some of the original watercolour illustrations of Beatrix Potter. The infant Mrs Angry was hardly tall enough to see into the display cases, but the wonder she felt at being so close to the original pictures of Tom Kitten and Peter Rabbit was something not easily forgotten. To see a display like this in the intimate rooms of the Farmhouse Museum is the perfect experience for a child, and something that will be now be lost forever. What a terrible shame.

The Church Farmhouse Museum has been shut, despite a campaign of protest from residents.

They were told that it was a matter of funding.

They were told that community groups would be allowed to take over, in the true spirit of the Big Society.

You were told a pack of lies, citizens.

There never was the slightest intention to allow the Museum to continue, because the grasping Tory philistines of One Barnet have absolutely no interest in the cultural or historical life of this borough, and see the building and its grounds not as something unique, to be valued and cared for, but as something from which to make profit.

The Museum, therefore, is no longer a museum, it is, according to the report going to committee this evening, 'a range of development opportunities'. The report clearly indicates a suggestion that a residential development will be allowed on this sensitive site, oh, subject to permission. Of course.

The Museum is not a unique, precious and much loved piece of our heritage, it is 'surplus to the council's requirements'.

They want to flog it off because this will 'support the council's priorities and bring this currently unused area of land back into use'.

The local archaeological association, HADAS, and other interested community groups of residents, genuinely thought they had a chance to save the museum and preserve it, by their voluntary efforts, for the borough. They never had the slightest chance of this, in fact.

Mrs Angry was reliably informed this week that a couple of years ago, an individual known to her was approached by a Tory councillor and informed that his colleagues 'had their eye' on the property, and would put it up for sale. And so they have.

Earlier this week, Mrs Angry hears, Tory councillor John Marshall was highly critical of some of the radical library proposals, which affects his ward of Hampstead Garden Suburb. Mrs Angry would hope that he and many of his colleagues would also therefore also oppose the blatant philistinism which is driving this sale forward. It's not too late for these rebels to find some courage, dig their heels in and kick up a fuss on behalf of the community they claim to represent.

And while we are on the subject, perhaps local Hendon MP Matthew Offord would like to stir himself and show some interest? Been very quiet lately, hasn't he? Does he ever contradict the policies of his former council friends? Or does party unity come before everything? Still waiting to hear his views on MetPro, aren't we?

Underlying this sale is a wider issue: there has been for some time a quiet, but stealthy, asset stripping property survey in hand, marking out any and every sales and development opportunity that might be lurking in the far reaches of the borough.

This has reached ridiculous extremes: a few months ago a local shopkeeper showed Mrs Angry a most intemperate letter from the council demanding to know why a local children's play area, supposedly situated behind his business, was being used for parking. The shopkeeper was mystified by this: there is and never has been a play area, only a small, broken surfaced, concreted,weed infested parking area next to a local scout hut. Mrs Angry looked at the letter and pointed out to the shopkeeper that the letter was not, as you might expect, from the Highways department, but from a council property valuer. A range of development opportunities, there, in a newly found piece of council ground next to a scout hut, no doubt.

So there you have it, citizens - from the smallest weed infested corner of the borough, to one of our oldest buildings, and our only museum: Broken Barnet is up for sale.

Ironic, really, isn't it? Via the scrutiny of the MetPro audit, Barnet has recently humiliated itself by the revelation of a cataclysmic failure with its performance in in procurement, yet in another, rather less savoury sense, procurement is something at which our Tory councillors excell. When it comes to whoring our heritage to the highest bidder, well - you must admit - nobody does it better.

Exclusive: the Mayor and the MetPro escort

The Tory councillors and senior officers of Broken Barnet would like us all to stop mentioning the cosy relationship which we now know existed between their administration and the MetPro security group for so many years.

They have always attempted to distance themselves from the issue: the councillors maintaining a stony silence, and the senior officers seeking to avoid any direct responsibility for the failures which have allowed this scandalous arrangement to continue for so long.

Mrs Angry can exclusively reveal some new evidence that the relationship between MetPro and our beloved council, the love that now dare not speak its name, was indeed once one of touching intimacy and lasting mutual satisfaction.

Here we have a photo taken at last summer's Friern Barnet show of the happy couple, in a rare public display of affection. See the Mayor's limo, so lovingly tended by our MetPro friends? According to an eye witness who has contacted Mrs Angry, Mayor Anthony Finn was escorted in a MetPro cavalcade into the event, presidential style, sweeping into the grounds, flanked by MetPro vehicles, just like Obama in the bullet proof Beast, on his recent trip to London.

Mayor Finn had come to join his Tory colleague, Councillor Brian Coleman, AM FRSA, who has upset the organisers of the Finchley Carnival with his new charges and unkind remarks about the organisation of the hundred year old event, but is a firm supporter of the Friern show. In fact, according to his declarations at the London Fire Brigade, our Brian is a director of the show's organisational company. This states: 'Friern Barnet Summer Show Limited (25% of the shared capital – no dividends) and Chairman of the Board of Directors (unremunerated)'. Had to look at the LFB register, because of course in the tradition of secrecy we maintain here, Brian's Barnet declarations are one of the opted out listings allowed to our more modest and sensitive councillors.

Councillor Coleman, a devout Methodist, is believed to have read a lesson over the loud speaker during a service at the show, in what must have been a spiritually uplifting moment for the gathered throng, no doubt reminiscent of John Wesley himself addressing a crowd of awe struck followers.

After touring the show, and admiring the grateful citizens' prize marrows and Victoria sponges, Barnet's Mayor Finn left the park in the limousine, again with full protection from MetPro, or as we must call them now, Evolution Emergency Response. Thank goodness for their watchful care: can you imagine what might have happened, readers, if, say, some local oik had thrown an ice cream at the mayoral presence, or shouted a coarse comment in his direction? I do hope those little cameras were switched on, just in case ...

Now, funnily enough, Mrs Angry happens to know that an FOI question was recently put to the council asking for details of this mayoral visit to Friern Show last August. She has seen the (yet again delayed) responses, and she must tell you, citizens, that the council can find no record of the use or presence of MetPro for this official visit. Isn't that odd? In fact, oh dear - naughty, naughty, London Borough of Broken Barnet, the FOI response says this:

Response
The Deputy Mayor and the Mayor attended the Friern Barnet Summer Show on the 21st and 22nd of August respectively. The council did not use the services of any external security companies or individuals (including Metpro) in relation to these visits. Additionally, neither the Mayor nor the Deputy Mayor uses the services of external security providers generally.

Oh. Then either a. the council is - no, it can't be - not telling the truth, or b. MetPro was offering its services voluntarily, and was not paid. Why would that be? Should not such a use of a company's services, whether paid for or not, be declared, in some way, for reasons of yes, transparency, and possible conflict of interest? Or has One Barnet gone down the path of product placement, in its relentless drive for efficiency and better services for less money?

Now someone, somewhere, must have arranged for this escort duty to be coordinated, and checked the timing of arrivals and departure: Mrs Angry has seen copies of the pages of hand written timetabling of the Mayor's movements and duties on the day. These papers include details of very solemn negotiations conducted, at some length, in formal correspondance with worried representatives of the visiting Mayor of Okehampton on whether or not our Mayor would be willing to allow his guest to wear his own municipal bling at the event. He was given the ok, in the end, if you're beside yourself with speculation. Nothing about security arrangements, but then perhaps this would have been a matter for the Met CT team, in consultation with MetPro special services. (Oh look, D: another 100,000 hits ...)

But isn't this a fitting symbol, readers, of the whole scandalous affair: the councillors of Broken Barnet, so engrossed in their own self indulgent, role playing fantasies that they completely fail to see the need to monitor the dangerous liasons, the casual procurements, that their complacency and carelessness has allowed?

The MetPro affair has taken on a totemic value now: it is the marking point of a moment in the history of this Tory admininstration, which will decide whether or not they can redeem themselves from the moral decline of the past few years, and reintroduce some standard of integrity into public life. Tomorrow night's much anticipated audit meeting will be the test: let's see what indication that gives of the direction the new leader is set to follow.