West London Libraries

At a recent meeting of the West London Waste Authority, the Tory member from Hillingdon let fall a remark about the wonderful efficiency of their library service.  This is a common trope in a number of articles; for example, here.  However, I am not at all sure that Hillingdon has actually made the savings that are claimed.

In our own Libraries Transformation report, we had a table comparing efficiency in library services across West London.  Hillingdon didn't score particularly well.  The figures used were from CIPFA (Chartered Institute of Public Finance Accountants), which is the standard way to compare local authority expenditure.

I wonder whether Hillingdon have in fact overhyped their model?

Furness Road Resurfacing

I am glad to see that work on resurfacing Furness Road has finally started.  I have been trying to get the carriageway resurfaced for some time.

Libraries Judgement

The new law term starts next week, and I hope we will finally get a judgement in the Libraries case.  However, this cannot be guaranteed as it might drag on to the next week.  This is enormously frustrating for people in the service who have to live with the uncertainity caused by the litigation.

Banned Books in Brent

Brent Libraries have joined in the "Banned Books" promotion here.  You can borrow from 100 books that have been banned at one time or another, sometimes for extremely odd reasons.

School Crossing Patrols

A curious fact about School Crossing Patrols: although Cllr Paul Lorber promised to Call In the report when he attended the Executive last week, he has not in fact done so.  The deadline for a Call In has now passed.

Brent Rewarding Reuse

Brent, through the West London Waste Authority, has been awarded some money to start a reuse scheme that incentivises users.  This should help extend reuse in Brent, which has never been as extensive as it should be, as well as giving us experience of using an incentive based  scheme.

Parking Shop

There may be some disruption to service at the parking shop in Walm Lane.  This is because the Council and the contractor have agreed some management changes at very short notice in order to deal with problems in the service.

Fairtrade Progress

Brent Fairtrade Network will be meeting tonight in Brent Town Hall, so perhaps an update on Fairtrade is in order.  One of the Labour Party's manifesto committments was on Fairtrade, and this was duly incorporated in the Council's Corporate Strategy.

Previous efforts to make Brent a Fairtrade Borough had rather run into the sand, and I think that officers had downgraded the effort as a result.  The election of a new administration helped to reboot the effort.  Essentially, to achieve Fairtrade status Brent has to get lots of non-Council bodies to sign up.  We are currently struggling to get enough cafes to sell Fairtrade goods, enough schools to register and interest and above all enough religious organisations (since Brent has so many and of so many different kinds). However, we now have a plan in place to work through these problems and I am hopeful to achieve Fairtrade staatus some rime next year.  

Sarah Teather Out of the Loop

The story about Michael Gove running a parallel department makes me wonder about Sarah Teather.  I presume she is not included in the favoured circle of Tory advisors that make all the decisions in this less than transparent way.  Should a minister really be excluded from decision making in this fashion?  Does she just sit there waiting to be given instructions to dump her election promises on Building Schools for the Future, cut funding for early years, up tuition fees or whatever?

The phrase "In office, but not in power" comes to mind>

Dollis Hill House Demolition

It has been a while since I blogged on Dollis Hill House.  Demolition is set to proceed shortly.  Once it is done, the house will be replaced with some landscaping which incorporates parts of the old building, and (I think) should enhance that part of Gladstone Park.  It is a pity that it has taken so many years to get to a solution.

Streetcare Round up

Just a quick round up on streetcare issues:

Kensal Green should now have been sprayed with weedkiller.  It takes two or three weeks to kill the plant.  After that it can be weeded out.  My own observation is that much of the weed cover in Kensal Green has now died off.

I understand that the new paving on Station Road has hit a problem with paan spitting.  This is a problem more associated with Ealing Road.  Paan is  chewing mixture popular in southern India which is very hard to clean off paving.  The Council is using a contractor to treat the slabs to make them more cleanable, but apparently the spitters get there before the contractor.  Officers are still working on a solution.  The easiest would be if people did not spit paan.

The potholes at the top of Furness Road (nearest King Edward VII park have been given a temporary patch, as the whole road surface at the top is due for replacement this financial year.

Lack of Scrutiny

Welovelocalgovernment has some fair criticisms of parliamentary scrutiny, but I suspect they would apply equally well not just to local government but also the media.  Coverage often seems to focus on minor issues that form only a very small part of the picture, instead of more substantial problems.  Why is this?

Harlesden ACF

The turnout at the Harlesden ACF on Tuesday was very poor.  This time there were no excuses over bad weather.  Clearly we need to do more to rethink how ACFs can be made into effective tools for public engagement.

Brief Executives

I see Martin Francis is complaining of the brevity of discussion at Brent Council Executive meetings _ not a complaint most councillors are used to hearing.  The reason that the Executive meetings are brief is that they are the culmination of a long process of consideration lasting (at the least) several weeks. 

Martin often writes as if the entire consideration of the process took part in a single meeting.  In fact, any report will have been circulated through various officers, cleared by the senior management team, discussed with lead members, been the focus of at least one collective discussion by all the Executive members and maybe more.  In many cases there will already have been extensive public consultation, discussion within party groups and with various interested parties.  It is difficult to see how all that consideration could be fitted into one meeting.

Big Society Procurement

A flagship Big Society initiative in Surrey has failed to win a contract.  This is not really surprising, but it illustrates how public services won't simply be taken over by voluntary start ups.  Bidding in a major procurement process is extremely hard.  Whoever is awarding the contract has detailed legal requirements designed to promote fair competition, and established companies with experience will be more likely to succeed than enthusastic amateurs.  If the awarding authority is biased in its contract evaluation, it can be sued.

I suspect that the Tories are actually well aware of all this, and the fluffy "Big Society" rhetoric is really about covert privatisation.

MPs Registering Shock

MPs are apparently shocked at the problems with the forthcoming rules on registering to vote.  These are soon to be changed so that the register is no longer filled in by one person per household, but by each individual personally.  The effect is likely to massively reduce the number of people on the register.  For areas like Brent, I suspect that as much as half the population might cease to register.  The question is: at what point does the proportion become so high that the election is no longer democratic?

UPDATE:

Brent is particularly affected by registration problems because we have a highly transient population with lots of ethnic diversity (and therefore language probelms).

Knowles House Tonight

Unusually I won't be presenting any of the reports at the Executive tonight, but there is one report of particular interest to Kensal Green.  There is a proposal to dispose of Knowles House on Longstone Avenue.  This is currently a dementia home although it has only 12 permanent residents.  The residents would have to have their provision re-supplied elsewhere if the recommendation goes ahead. 

Much of the site is empty.  The third floor cannot be used as it is not DDA compliant, and the home does not meet national standards.  Included in the site is a former nursery which has not been used since 2007.  Temporarily , this may be used to rehouse some of the activities from the youth club, which is being rebuilt.

A few Good Bankers

I enjoyed this Jack Nicholson parody on central bankers, although you probably have to be familiar with the film to fully appreciate it.

ConDem Economic Policy

I find the spectacle of government ministers slowly realising that their economic policy is disasterous fascinating.  George Osborne can't admit that his cuts really do go too far too fast, but  I suspect his hint at wanting more quantitative easing amounts to that.  Unfortunately, whatever effect QE may have (and it does not appear to have been that great so far) is likely to be offset by the austerity in public spending.  Meanwhile Nick Clegg is suggesting bringing forward public infrastructure projects.  Very sensible, but completely contrary to the deficit cutting rhetoric we have heard since he jumped into bed with the Tories.

Brent Council and the Committee System

One of the motions put forward by the Liberal Democrats at the last Council advocated a return to the
Committee system, as being more democratic than the current "Executive" arrangements.

I remember when the Executive system was introduced, the then Council Leader Paul Daisley told me that Committees really worked by himself as Leader having a series of bilateral meeting with each Committee Chair, who then delivered the Committee. So, certainly he seemed to think the old system was less democratic and transparent than many of its nostaglic advocates now claim. 

I can also see a number of other potential problems.  Firstly, given the way that decisions are now picked over, there might be greater scope for legal action.  Procurement rules now allow companies to sue Councils over quite technical infractions of procedure for large sums.  I have also seen lawyers try to pick out single sentences or brief quotes in order to overturn decisions.  I suspect the Committee system would have far greater scope for this than in the less technical times when it used to operate.

I can also see problems with unpredictability, as committees depend on who turns up and how they vote.  In terms of awarding contracts, that might lead to local authorities having to pay a "risk premium".  It might also create difficulties in the partnership working we are all so keen on. 

Finally, the old Committee system did not allow for the Scrutiny function. I think this is the big advantage of the new system, albeit one that Brent has failed to exploit fully.  It allows the Council to do high quality work on important issues _ like the recent report on youth and preventing offending _ in its own operations.  However, it also allows us to question outside bodies that spend public money in Brent, like the NHS, the rail companies or the Police.  That has huge scope to improve public services, if it is taken seriously.