About the old localism thing, Eric: was this what you meant? Taking over the Town Hall, Broken Barnet style

Citizen Barnet informs the councillors of Broken Barnet that residents are reclaiming democracy from their grubby little hands

Well. 

As you may have heard, there was a small but perfectly timed revolution in Barnet last night. 

Yes, a very British revolution: polite, sort of; respectful of the furniture, mindful of the need to thank the police for their good humoured attentions, and leaving a roomful of Tory councillors in a state of fear and trembling, as they contemplated the now certain prospect that they will lose control of this borough at the next election. 

Or rather no: they have already lost control of this borough, and last night the people of Barnet picked up the last pieces of the Tories credibility, as representatives of their electorate, and threw it all back in their faces. 

It was a magnificent sight.

Last night's Cabinet meeting was of course convened in order to 'discuss' the recommendation by senior officers that the authority should allow the giant outsourcing company Capita to take over control of £750 million worth of our council services. The Tories are now trying to present the value of the deal being 'only' £320 million, but the larger total is the real value of the deal if, as both sides intend, it lasts fifteen years. Yes, fifteen years.

There was never any doubt that this contract would be approved by the quisling councillors. They have colluded with senior officers and private consultants in arranging and agreeing this deal in secret, in the absence of any meaningful scrutiny or consultation, betraying the best interests of the residents and taxpayers of Barnet, acting in defiance of all reasonable criticisms, and refusing to engage with the electorate in any debate on the most significant policy decision ever made in the history of this borough, representing the largest act of privatisation by any local authority in the United Kingdom. 

And their mandate for undertaking this monstrous commitment? None whatsoever. One Barnet and the wholescale outsourcing of council services to the private sector was not included in their pre election manifesto, and has been imposed on the residents of this borough by stealth, by deception, and in breach of the most fundamental demands of the democratic process. 

As a Conservative Secretary of State for local government attempts to convince the country that he is empowering every citizen with greater control over their own lives, with more choice, with more freedom, with greater transparency, and greater accountability, here in Broken Barnet his Tory colleagues are doing everything they can to expose the great fat lie that is the localism agenda. They have demonstrated the impossibility of influencing an elected authority which is determined to follow its own crooked course, with no fear of restraint, and no respect for the people it is supposed to represent, an authority which is so frightened of expressions of dissent from its own electorate that it resorts to amending the constitution to forbid entirely the discussion of any council policy at local residents' forums, a ruling which is enforced with iron fisted determination at every meeting. 

What can we do? There is no accountability, in Barnet, until the next election: or so our councillors believe.

No accountability in this borough, but there is a world beyond the boundaries of Broken Barnet, and there are laws which protect the citizens of this country from injustice, and injury. Solicitors have been instructed to fight Barnet Council's attempt to sell us into bondage with Capita, and as you will have seen from the previous post, there are many grounds on which a judicial review may be pursued. 

Yesterday, just before the meeting, Barnet Council received notification of intent to apply for a review of One Barnet, based on the allegation of failure to consult, failure to consider best value for money, failure to address issues of equality, breaches of procurement law, and placing undue pressure on councillors to vote in party line rather than by individual choice.

The news of this legal challenge undoubtedly gave rise to a greater intensity of mood amongst the residents present at the meeting last night: a sense of euphoria, and renewed strength. The room was packed, and an overflow rooom was used: around two hundred people altogether. Also sitting at the front of the public area were several Tory councillors, who later had cause to regret their attendance. 

The meeting began with public question time. Leader Richard Cornelius simply ignored the majority of questions, declaring them to be rhetorical, and therefore unworthy of response. He had nothing to say, therefore, to Julian Silverman's musing on the subject of the words of outsourcing guru and sometime BT, sometime Barnet consultant Max Wide and his alleged remark: 'Never waste a good crisis, and learn to love a recession'. Mrs Angry laughed to herself. Mr Wide now works for iMPOWER, the company which, with Agilisys, acts as the One Barnet 'implementation partners' at a cost, last month, of a staggering £780,000.

Mrs Angry's question was to Councillor Cornelius, wondering why he thought we should trust someone who could not remember on Sunday which services he is outsourcing, and who had no idea that his own officers had changed the model of the DRS tender to a Joint Venture without any authority, and by the way, in view of the fact that a notification of intention to apply for Judicial Review, should he not do the sensible thing, and call a halt to One Barnet. Councillor Cornelius did not like Mrs Angry's question, and it appeared that his view of what comprises a sensible thing does not equate with hers. Or words to that effect: she wasn't really listening, to be honest.

After the questions, Labour leader Alison Moore addressed the committee and pointed out that One Barnet meant an end to local democracy as we know and understand it. The Tory councillors looked on, thinking to themselves that yes, that was exactly their intention.

Councillor Daniel Thomas now launched into one of his 'I am now going to speak very quickly and smoothly in the belief that you will not notice the torrent of shite which is spewing out of my self satisfied face' diatribes, not quite quickly enough to prevent Mrs Angry commenting that he was not going to be around to see the progress of One Barnet. He replied without so much as batting an eyelid that yes, that was how strongly he felt about the marvels of One Barnet - how noble of you, retorted Mrs Angry, admiring his Sydney Carton performance, as he stood on the scaffold, with his head in the block.

The background of French revolutionary politics was a fitting theme for the events which then transpired, as it happened, because - oh look, fellow blogger Citizen Barnet was now standing on her chair, fist in the air, declaiming like Mme Defarge. Citizen Barnet is usually very quiet, considered, and well mannered - but when she is riled, she can give it out like the best of them. Last night she was riled, and she was the best of them: see the following footage, and enjoy, while Mrs Angry takes a break. More later.

Mrs Angry changes the subject

Yesterday's blog was hugely popular, for some reason, particularly with gentlemen readers of a certain age, obviously very keen to participate in the debate about a suitable model for local government, (Model X, Mr Harper?) oh, and ladies' underwear. Sorry, boys, though, here is a bucket of cold water - back to politics now.

A couple of things to catch up with:

In all the excitement over the MetPro scandal, Mrs Angry has not had a chance to publish the eventual, partial, responses to the following expenses in the last quarters of 2010, as noted in the online council expenditure over £500. Let's take a look then. Remember, these questions were made to a residents' forum, which proved too embarrassing for Barnet, along with the one about MetPro, and was, in an admirably creative time delaying strategy, turned into an FOI request.

The expenses I questioned were:

a) The payments made to Todd Worsnip, also known as ‘DJ Snips’, amounting to more than £2,000 in July and August by Childrens’ Services.

b) The two payments made to 'a named individual' , apparently a ‘hip hop’ artist, of £1,269 each, in August, by Adult Social Services (name later ‘redacted, although originally published’).

c) A payment of £550 to the RAF Museum in November by Adult Social Services for ‘staff training’.

d) Payments of £3,150 by Children’s Services and £900 by the Corporate Governance Directorate to ‘Higgins Cartoons’ in November.

e) A payment of £1,162 to Digby Trout Restaurants Ltd by Adult Social Services for ‘staff training’ on 9/12/2010.

f) Payments of more than £15,000 to the four star luxury Sandbanks Hotel in Poole for conference facilities in November.

g) Payments, by the Deputy Chief Executive and other departments, of more than £15,000 in the last quarter alone to Voice!Business Associates, a company that specialises in ‘voice training’. How many officers have been trained by this company?

So: on the last possible day Mrs Angry received a reply, of sorts, from Barnet. And how very enlightening. No wonder they were so shy about publishing the details. In fact: excuse me while I slip into the appropriate One Barnet hiphop style:

Yo, Walkley - Mrs Angry's on your case:
She thinks these expenses are a f*cking disgrace ...

Yes, Mr Todd Worsnip, aka hiphop producer and DJ Snips, has been paid for two music workshops, a marvellous opportunity for vulnerable young people in need of a mentor, and perhaps wishing to emulate his sound political views - (read what he has to say about David Cameron on the Salute website, Tory councillors of Broken Barnet ... ) Sadly, the entry over another apparent hiphop artiste must remain forever shrouded in mystery, having been redacted, and Mrs Angry being given a refusal to comply under some third party personal data clause. Now, you may feel that any individual being paid for services should not be eligible for anonymity under this excuse: but what do you expect, in our borough?

So: on to point c), money paid to the RAF museum, for 'staff training': another disappointment, I fear. This was not as I had hoped, in order that deputy CE Andrew Travers might learn how to pilot a Spitfire (hence his elocution lessons in received English, to sound more like Douglas Bader when radioing back to base at NLBP). No, this £550 was actually the cost of venue hire for an Adult Social Services staff awards ceremony at the museum. Oh, and point e), a payment of £1,160 to Digby Trout Restaurants Ltd was for the catering. So more than £2,000 for a party & doling out some awards to staff members. A perfectly reasonable use of tax payers' money, I'd say, wouldn't you, citizens? Rewarding staff for doing their feckin jobs with awards and catered functions, in the same month their colleagues in other departments are being made redundant? Nice touch.

Now then: the £15,000 plus spent on a conference at a luxury hotel in Poole? It was for a headteachers' residential conference. Ha: I'll bet there was some running about the corridors late at night, and a few discreet taps on the door at one in the morning, with that lot, don't you? But don't worry: Mrs Angry is told that the costs were paid for in full by the individual schools. Who get their funding from, er ... us?

Higgins Cartoons: oh yes. The first payment of £900 was for 'promotional material' for the 2010 election awareness campaign. What? Can anyone remember what that might be? Caricatures of our beloved councillors, to discourage young voters from visiting the polling station or ever thinking there is any point to taking part in the democratic process?

The second payment of a whopping £3,150 was for promotional material 'for a recycling campaign', (incorrectly coded, we are told, and really incurred by Environment & Operations, ie the responsibility of our beloved councillor, Brian Coleman.) So: in order to promote recycling and the conservation of energy and finite resources, we spent thousands of pounds on er what: wasting finite resources and energy printing leaflets that probably no one read? Hope they got recycled, anyway.

Ah: the £15,000 plus spent in payments for glorified elocution lessons to Voice!Business Associates, mostly from the Deputy CE's department, but also Env & Ops and Planning, Housing & Regeneration. Here is a partial breakdown of the deputy CE expenditure alone:

£4371.80
Half-day session for 2 officers
Day session for 12 officers
Day session for 12 officers
Half-day session for 1 officer

£2851.80
Half-day session for 1 officer
Day session for 3 officers
Short day session for 2 officers

£2,209.70
Day session for 3 officers
Half-day session for 2 officers
Half-day session for 1 officer

Again, money well spent, I am sure all residents will agree. It's vital to the success of One Barnet that senior officers feel confident when spouting a load of shite in meetings about the necessity of a relentless drive for efficiency: an efficiency which allows such extravagance in expenditure for the priviliged few.

Just a sample, then, of the type of things which Barnet Council wastes our money on, while handing out redundancy notices to staff members, and making devastating cuts in vital services like childrens' centres, and in grants to local voluntary bodies.

A couple of weeks ago, I was at an event at the Arts Depot: a dance festival performed by children from Barnet schools. I was invited to attend because the evening was held in memory of a family friend, a beautiful young woman named Nadine Mehta, a former PE and dance teacher, and pupil, from my old school St Michael's, who lost her life in tragic circumstances, just before Christmas. It was a very emotional event for many reasons, but notably because of the excitement and pride of the children taking part, young children of many different abilities and cultural backgrounds, many from schools in some of the less affluent areas of our borough, and most touchingly, perhaps, including a class of children from a school for special needs. It was impossible to watch that particular performance without being moved to tears, because it was so joyful, and they obviously gained so much from the experience - and indeed were reluctant to leave the stage.

At the end of the evening the organiser made a speech, and mentioned, regretfully, that he did not think such an event would be held again. I was sitting near the Mayor, as it happened, and watched him while this remark was made. He looked away, and suddenly felt the need to busy himself with his handkerchief. As well he might. Because, as we know, the budget cuts made by our philistine Tory councillors include a massive reduction to the Arts Depot.

The Tories want us to believe that such cuts were unavoidable: looking at their accounts, and seeing where they throw money with such reckless abandon suggests to me that this is absolute rubbish. They choose to waste their budgets on themselves and the whims of senior officers, whilst local bodies, and venues like the Arts Depot, must do without the level of funding that sustains all the fantastic community based projects that bring so much pleasure, and so much benefit, to the less advantaged residents of our borough. There is something badly wrong here, isn't there?

Finally: warm congratulations today to Andrew Dismore on securing the Labour candidacy for the forthcoming GLA elections in this constituency. He is the man who will deliver us from Brian Coleman, and what a happy day that will be for us all, here in Broken Barnet.Today is the day, ctizens, where we start to loosen the grip of the Tory stranglehold on this borough, and move towards a more positive future.