.JPG)
Councillor Cornelius's Dolores
One Barnet : 23 days and counting
Only 29 days remained when Cllr Richard Cornelius, Tory
Leader of Barnet Council, faced an angry public meeting of local residents at
the bursting-at-the-seams Greek Cypriot Centre in North Finchley on 8 November.
Other speakers were Cllr Alison Moore, Leader
of the Labour Group, Lib Dem Group Leader, Cllr Jack Cohen and Andy Mudd of
APSE (Association for Public Service Excellence).
On 6 December 2012, Tory Barnet Council intend to begin
outsourcing 70% of their services - core services - to a private, profit-making
company at a cost to the taxpayer of £1 billion pounds. There will be no way out for ten years even if
things change or go wrong. There is no precedent for this magnitude of local
government outsourcing so it is a gamble. The Council's declared motivation is
that it will save money, but it was made clear at the meeting that the amount
of savings "guaranteed" in the contract cannot be guaranteed in
practice. The company who wins this
contract will have the champagne corks popping, hardly able to believe its
luck. That contractor could well be BT, who is eager to secure the One Barnet
outsourcing contract while announcing last week that it is
stopping its own outsourcing and getting its in-house staff to do these tasks
instead to cut costs and save money.
There's a scene in the film The Man with Two Brains (1983) in which Steve Martin, a widower who regularly consults the
portrait of his dead wife, stands before her hoping for a sign of approval for
his new relationship with the evil, scheming, but irresistibly sexy, Kathleen
Turner. "If there's anything wrong
with my feelings for Dolores just give me a sign," he asks.
An anguished warning emanates from the portrait, a wailing
of "No. No-oo. No-ooo. No-ooooo". The portrait rotates wildly, the
wall cracks, the room flashes dark and light and a whirlwind blows objects
crazily about. With the room in ruins and the portrait askew on the wall Martin
seems to be oblivious to what has occurred. "Just any kind of sign",
he pleads. "I'll keep looking out for it. But meanwhile (removing the
portrait from the wall) I'll just put you in the closet".
One Barnet is Cllr Cornelius's Dolores. There were impassioned 'No-oooos' from the deeply
concerned residents who complained that they have not been consulted. Many have
been completely unaware that this is about to be thrust upon them. They have
expressed their anger and have asked for a referendum. If anything goes wrong, the taxpayer could
lose their core services and will have to financially bail out the Council.
Andy Mudd urged the Council to at least consider an
alternative claiming that "Barnet is the worst contracting authority I've
come across." And it is certainly
true that Barnet contracts to date, including parking and maintenance have been
a disaster.
'No-oooo' came from Cllrs
Moore and Cohen, who complained that their participation has been stifled by a
general lack of transparency. Relevant information
and committee papers have been denied even to councillors. The right to speak out in meetings has been
curtailed. Cllr Cornelius claims that secrecy is essential as the contract is "commercially
sensitive" and in future the private contractor would also have the right to
secrecy for the same reason. In other words certain parts of the contract may
never be revealed.
Impassioned "No-oooos" came from every side. Even former mayor, Cllr Brian Coleman, sitting at the back of the hall, has declared himself against One Barnet since he has been relieved of the Tory whip. In the hall was a man who had travelled from Somerset to share the woes of outsourcing. His Council is being sued by their outsourcing partner Southwest One following a dispute over whether enough savings were being made and the quality of the procurement service. His 'no-oooo' came from bitter experience. Throughout the meeting, Cllr Cornelius sat smiling and nodding affably, and like Steve Martin, consigned the objections he didn't want to hear to the closet.
In fact, it became increasingly clear that Cllr Cornelius had
not read the contract and does not know details of its contents. And he is
still waiting for certain vital information to arrive. This is with less than a
month to go. The Council has never explored the possibilities
of a comparative in-house alternative that would avoid running public services
for the profit of a private company at the risk of the taxpayer and would keep
it local with all the advantages outlined by BT as well as boosting the
employment and economy of Barnet. It is a shambles. Yet Barnet Tories are
determined to push ahead with this life-changing, risky, irrational,
irreversible move that could bring ruin to Barnet. Why? Cornelius has also
consigned both democracy and reason to the closet.
He claims no-one has come up with an alternative, but alternatives
have been proposed and continue to be proposed. They are ignored by the Council
who are employing an outside consultant at massive cost to the taxpayer.
It seems there is little that can be done without a change
of mind by the Council. In reality the Tories large majority will achieve the result
they want. But will they decide that the
risk to Barnet and to their own election chances in 2014 is too great for them
to go blindly ahead? Andy Mudd advised
that if the Council were minded, they could back out tomorrow and right up to
the deadline on 6 December without any financial penalties. And apparently the coffers of Barnet are far
from empty, so a period of reconsideration is affordable. The people of Barnet
must fervently hope that it is One Barnet that Cornelius ultimately consigns to
the closet and locks the door behind it.
No comments:
Post a Comment