More Brent Library Figures

I see that Brent has updated the library figures on its web site.  For a while they stopped doing this, which is a pity as Brent Library Service is a real success for the Council.

The pattern of the latest figures is not dramatically different from the half year figures I published before.  Visits in the third quarter again show good growth on the same period in the previous year (28.8%).  Loan figures don't have that level of growth, which might confirm those who believe that book loans are becoming less central to libraries as IT becomes more important.

Once again, the new Wembley Library shows remarkable growth, which makes me glad that we resisted pressure to downgrade it when the Libraries Transformation Project was being developed. 

Kenton By Election

Thursday's by election in Kenton had few surprises.  The Tories won, as they have every election in Kenton.  Labour got a slightly improved share of the vote compared to its performance in the 2011 by election.  The Liberal Democrats confirmed their collapse, garnering only 70 votes (just over 3% of the vote).

In Praise of Brent Libraries

Around the UK, library services are under constant threat, with even decisions to "save" them regarded as temporary and partial.  In many cases, the decisions strike me as being made on grounds of political expediency rather than with a coherent idea of how the services should be developed over the next few years.


Controversial as it was, I am glad that Brent's Libraries Transformation Project took a different path. Getting the pain of restructuring and library closures out of the way in 2011/2012 paved the way for Brent Libraries success subsequently.  It also allowed the service to reroute resources to a more coherent vision of what a public library service should look like.


Visiting Kilburn Library recently, I was struck by a leaflet describing the activities in Brent Libraries.  They include: IT for beginners, English Conversation, Story & rhyme time, Homework Clubs, Children's Arts & Crafts, reading groups, knitting clubs, Writers' groups, the University of the Third Age, Dance and exercise groups, Chatterbooks, Connexions and other advice services and even Scrabble groups.  All that is happening in Brent libraries seven days a week.  As well as all this there are other regular or one off initiatives such as Black History Month, the Summer Reading Challenge, the Six Book Challenge, Brent Dance Month, Artist in residence schemes and so on.


That is on top of the regular business of lending about a million books a year, giving access to periodicals, free Wifi, numerous computer terminals and so on.


All this is under threat in other authorities which didn't take a strategic approach, but simply tried to keep buildings "open" until they close bit by bit. 

Standards Committee of Brent Council

It is a sad reflection of the decline of the Standards system that Brent Council's Standards Committee has met just once since the local elections in May 2014.  This is part of a pattern of down grading that has seen Scrutiny reduced, guards against member corruption emasculated and a lowering in the quality of decision making (typified by the rushing through of various decisions). 

Eric Pickles and Government Corruption

One of the more dire manifestations of the Big Society idea is the abolition of the Audit Commission. 

Eric Pickles argued that "armchair auditors" could do the job previously done by professional accountants.  Anyone who actually thought about this would know that local government finance is simply far too complicated for that to be an effective mainstay of properly monitoring public spending.

Instead we have a situation where the professional auditors are the same firms that advise on tax avoidance and offer "consultancy" of often dubious value.  Of course, the activities are supposed to be separate, but given recent scandals in financial services, how many of us would trust to that?  Simultaneously, the barriers to corruption in local government have been systematically weakened.  This is not just a matter of formal rules, but also a weakening press.

In Brent, we appear to have gone even further in this direction than we had to.  Brent Scrutiny has effectively been abolished in changes rushed through after the elections.  The Standards system, which genuinely held former councillor Bertha Joseph to account, has now become meaningless.  That episode reminds me of the importance of political will.  Bertha Joseph was effectively shielded from punishment by Boris Johnson because he wanted her political support on the Fire Authority.  If gross misconduct, for example racist bullying, is deliberately ignored by elected politicians, it is no wonder that public faith in democracy diminishes. 

False Accusations of Misconduct

I notice that Martin Francis is, perhaps unwisely, hosting a debate about the Brent Council local government election count in 2014 on his blog.  It seems to be entirely generated by a defeated Liberal Democrat election candidate who is seeking to imply some kind of misconduct on the part of the counting staff.

I was present throughout the count and I saw nothing out of the ordinary.  The dramatic collapse in the Liberal Democrat vote is not out of line with the results in other Boroughs.  If anyone has any evidence of wrong doing, they should have taken it to the police a long time ago.  They might also have considered the possibility of an election petition.  Since neither of these appear to have been done, I suspect that the complainant is simply having difficulty accepting defeat, rather like many Yessers in the Scottish Indyref.  Those complaints amounted to nothing and I don't think these will.

However, circulating baseless accusations has two deleterious effects.  Firstly, it damages the reputation of the people organising the Count for no good reason.  Secondly, it means that when genuine accusations of wrong doing come forward they are more likely to be dismissed without proper investigation. 

Brent Budget and Equalities

As Brent Council meets to set its Budget this evening, a Guardian column reminds us all of the realities of local government.  One of the points made is the importance of equalities.  Given the recent controversy in Brent on this matter, perhaps Councillors should be more mindful of this. 

Limited Victory on Local Welfare Provision

Patrick Butler has a rather gloomy look at the government's partial reversal of cuts to local welfare provision.  I fear he is right.  The victory, such as it is, is very limited.  In particular, the budget can still be raided for other purposes.

Labour Business Plans

Yesterday I wen to hear Rachel Reeves MP present Labour's plans to boost business.  The whole agenda of improving productivity, making work pay, increasing research and development and so on seems so much more substantial than the Tories' race to the bottom.

Special Council Tax Meeting

I gather Brent Labour Group is having a special meeting about Council Tax levels tonight, called at very short notice.  I assume this is to attempt to regularise the rather messy situation that has been allowed to arise.  Really this whole issue could have been much better handled, as indeed could the budget as a whole.

OECD Gloom

The sheer gloom of the OECD analysis of the UK economy makes for depressing reading, especially the low productivity and tight housing supply.  Neither of these are likely to be helped by Tory policies.

Brent Council Tax Rise

Returning to the suggestion of a Brent Council Tax rise that has caused so much controversy.  I have summarised the arguments in favour here.  It is not hard to think of ways to spend the extra money.  In the past I have suggested expanding the local welfare provision.  I reckon a lot of people would support a modest Council Tax increase on that basis, but of course it is easy enough to think of other deserving objectives.

The main counter argument is that a Council Tax rise, even a slight one, raises living costs at a time when many people are under strain.  This is true, but it does not appear to have been widely noticed that Brent has already done this with changes to Council Tax Support, and specifically targeted a rise at those least able to pay. 

I reported on this at the time.  The changes put in place then affected people who had previously paid nothing because of their poverty.  In Brent that is about 21,000 people.  The standard rate was set at about 20% of the full charge.  Still a hefty discount, this was nonetheless a big rise from the zero level.  For instance, someone in a band D property would go from paying zero to almost £300/year. 

I asked a senior member of the Council Executive why that was the right choice for the poorest people, but he still felt the rate for everyone else had to be frozen. 

He couldn't think of an answer.

Equalities and Race

Martin Francis takes up the issue of Brent Council's equality policy and the behaviour of its head of human resources here.  I don't propose to go in to the details of the issue, where the Council is giving contradictory answers, and effectively fails to deal with the problem.  I have been highly critical of Brent Council's human resources department on this and other issues before. 

What I wanted to pick up on is Martin's view that "Consideration of the Equalities issue would perhaps carry more weight and be more robust if some Cabinet members stepped aside in favour of substitutes who are members of the BAME community."

I think this is a very old fashioned view which is actually quite wrong.  Firstly, there is the obvious point that we should all be concerned about racial discrimination, whatever our ethnicity.  I don't agree with the implication that only someone from an ethnic minority can properly make a judgement. 

The second, wider, point is that a modern understanding of equalities goes well beyond race.  Current legislation, and the wider political culture, recognises a number of different strands where discrimination can come into play, including sex, religion, age, disability sexuality and so on.  We all of us, meet at least three of what the law calls "protected characteristics".   The characteristics (such as disability for example) can in any case be catch all groups that actually cover a range of people with very different problems.  It is also true that people in one or other of these strands are not exempt from prejudice simply on that basis (e.g. anti-Semitic white people can discriminate against white jews).

Natalie Bennett Car Crash Interview

I had always assumed that Brent Green Party were outliers in being so flaky.  Not only have they a history of opposing sensible proposals, they don't even seem to be particularly environmentalist.  Natalie Bennett's car crash interview on LBC this morning makes me wonder if they are all like that.

Wembley Library Twelfth Biggest in the UK

I have long championed Wembley Library against its critics.  This includes a number of people who, like Paul Lorber, describe themselves as "library campaigners".  I recently learnt that is the previous financial year, it was the twelfth biggest library in the UK by visits.  This success was predictable from the early figures.  My expectation is that the full year figures this year will top a million, which is a level of footfall that would take Wembley Library into the top ten.

Brent Budget Consultation

Brent Council Cabinet will pass its budget recommendations tonight, including the controversial freeze in Council Tax. 

I have commented before that I think the whole process has been flawed this year.  It began much later in the year than has historically been the norm.  Many of the proposals seem to lack any overarching strategy, even going against the Council's general position in parking for example.  Most seem to be negative, cost driven proposals.  Indeed the only positive measure I can see is the proposals to reduce electricity use in street lighting.  Many of the proposals strike me as implausible in how far they might actually save money.  Some seem to be of dubious legality.  All these flaws seem to me to undermine the whole legitimacy of the budget consultation. 

The results of the consultation have a specific section (8) in the Cabinet Budget report.  The results strike me as distinctly limited for what was billed as a major exercise. The most substantial results are a Residents Attitude Survey   The RAS is an exercise that the Council undertakes periodically anyway.  There are 237 written responses specific to this budget.  There are also vague comments about "workshops" and Brent Connects.  It is not entirely clear how the feedback from these "workshops" are being fed back to members.  Most striking of all is a lack of data on the equality impacts, which has often been central to judicial reviews in recent years.

Compare that to the Libraries Transformation Project consultation of 2011, which covered only a small proportion of the total Council budget, and the current Budget consultation seems much smaller in scale.  The Libraries consultation had 1,517 questionnaire responses, as well as numerous other written responses.  The present budget consultation appears to have had only 237 submissions in total.  The full details are also in section eight of the original report.  It is surprising that a consultation on one part of the Budget should attract more attention than a consultation on the whole gamut of the Counjcil's activities. 

Welsh Volunteer Libraries

I have mentioned before that many local authorities seem to be heading down the volunteer libraries route without any evidence that it will work.  The Welsh government has produced some more research on the subject. 

One of the key conclusions is that volunteer libraries only really work with substantial local authority support.  If so, I wonder whether they actually save the local authority any money?

Arts Workshops at Willesden Green Library

Brent Council is advertising arts workshops at Willesden Green Library, as part of the new Willesden Library Centre.  This follows from the earlier Positive Arts project.  I am really glad that Brent Libraries and Regeneration staff are still finding ways for Brent Council to support the arts despite the worsening financial position.  Supporting the arts was an intrinsic part of the libraries transformation project. 

The Fate of Ward Working?

Looking through the Brent Council Budget papers, I can't find any reference to Ward Working.  I highlighted before that I thought this an area of concern.  It would represent a further diminution in the role of the councillors, as it is the only part of the budget that they can directly control to benefit their wards.  Along with the virtual abolition of scrutiny and the ignoring of majority votes, it will leave them little role at all.

Can anyone spot the fate of ward working in these budget papers?

Council Tax Embarrassment

Reports of the discussion of Council Tax increases cause me some embarrassment as a member of the Labour Party.  It seems that the Labour Group debated and voted on the issue, deciding in favour of a rise just short of what would trigger a referendum.  This seems eminently sensible to me for reasons I have explained. 

It now appears that the Executive plan to simply ignore the majority of the Group, and freeze the Council Tax.  I have never heard of such a thing in Brent or in any other authority, or indeed any other party.  Such blatant disregard makes everyone involved look ridiculous.

It is normal for Budgets to be subject to Group whipping, but since the majority voted in favour of an increase, I would have thought the Labour whip is in favour of the increase rather than against it.

Shared Library Services

There is a persistent legend, particularly promoted by Tim Coates, that UK library authorities do not share services.  In fact this is not so, and the next Brent Council Cabinet agenda gives an example.  It is considering two different ways to purchase library stock, and achieve discounts through economies of scale.  Such arrangements are common, although entering into them is more complicvated than some library campaigners seem to believe.

Putting the Clock Back

I was sorry I couldn't attend the Jubilee Clock event on Saturday.  I was busy doing the Lord's work doorstepping for Tulip Siddiq in West Hampstead.  Somebody asked me why the clock has changed colour.  Apparently it was painted differently at the time of the Harlesden City Challenge.  The new colours are based on the original Victorian colour scheme.

Costs of Volunteer Libraries

I have pondered before the success of volunteer (community managed) libraries.  What worries me is that there is very little evidence either way.  Given how central the approach is in many authorities, this is rather worrying. 

In the Brent case, we dealt with this at one point during the Willesden Green Library Saga.  It was proposed that instead of having interim services as they are now, we should re-open some of the closed libraries and use those on a temporary basis.  This was dealt with at the time.  The upfront cash costs of re-opening were substantial, more than £1.2 million (paragraph 3.13 of the report).

More interesting are the comments in the subsequent paragraph:

"There is also proposal that a proportion of these costs could be mitigated by using volunteers. If we are looking to provide a full and reliable seven day a week library service then the wisdom of relying on volunteers needs to be examined in line with our LTP. Volunteers to complement the work of professional staff can be beneficial but replacement of staff with volunteers is not part of the LTP. Managing, recruiting and training volunteers is a cost that is not warranted by the impact of the short term closure."

It emphasises, as has been done by some campaign groups such as SLAM, that volunteer libraries may end up costing more. 

Partly a service needs to be restructured so that professional staff are available to manage and advise the volunteers.  Partly, volunteers still require training and may6 have other on costs.  One doesn't really get the impressions that these aspects are really considered by authorities such as Lincolnshire of Leicestershire.

Study Spaces in Brent Libraries

One of the concerns with the original Libraries Transformation Project, and especially the decision to redevelop Willesden Library, was around study spaces.  I mentioned before that I am not sure how far Brent has actually met this need.  The plan for dealing with it was comprehensive (from the original papers to the Executive):

Study space and computers

3.8 Study space is a key part of the interim servi ce and during the 2012 exam

period space will be provided from the current WGLC

.

3.9 On an average day, staff observation shows that just under half of the study

spaces and computers are in use at any one time (60 of the 130 study spaces

and 20 of the 37 public internet pcs). During the exam period of April – June 

more of the spaces are used. The interim service delivery strategy has been

designed to match this provision as closely as possible. We have organised a

minimum of 50 spaces on a day to day basis: 

•10 PCS and 10 spaces at the temporary Grange Road library

•Further additional PCs and spaces in the alternative premises in Willesden

Green

•20 extra spaces at Kilburn library

•5 extra spaces at Ealing Road

•5 extra spaces at Town Hall

3.10 In addition, during exam time, we are negotiating for a further 80 spaces. At

least 30 in the redevelopment of Roundwood Youth Centre (opening in the

summer of 2012) and a further 50 spaces in a nearby premises. These will be

supplemented by an additional 40 spaces at the new Civic Centre in Wembley.

This will be closely monitored and if necessary we will continue to negotiate

with local venues for further study spaces. 

The "alternative premises in Willesden Green" are the Lewinson Centre, where a tenancy was still under negotiation at the time.  I am not sure if the Roundwood Youth Centre deal actually came off , but the aim was effectively to have more spaces than at the starting point.

Brent Scrutiny Overloaded?

Looking at the most recent Scrutiny agenda, I am once again struck at how much detail is in these reports.  I very much doubt that one meeting can examine such a detailed range of issues properly. 

Topping Out at the Willesden Green Library Centre

Attended the topping out event at Willesden Green Library Centre yesterday, presided over by Cllr Lesley Jones.  It is good to see the building so advanced.  I understand that practical completion is intended to be agreed in June.  When I asked about the actual opening of the Library I was told "late Summer", which is later than I had hoped but there we are.

I look forward to seeing it in action.  Among the attendees at this event was one of the fiercest proponents of the bid for Town Green status.  He now seems reconciled to the new Centre, which I am sure will immensely benefit Willesden Green.  Without a certain amount of persistence, not least in promoting the Libraries Transformation Project, none of this would have happened. 

Incidentally, I learnt that some people from Lewisham had visited earlier in the day, to see what they could learn lessons for their own library services.

Brent Schools Investment

I see that the Liberal Democrats are seeking to claim credit for investment in Our Lady of Lourdes Stonebridge and St Margaret Clitherow in Welsh Harp.  I am sure we can all agree with Nick Clegg when he says "“It is crucial that we invest properly in education, so that every child has a fair start in life."  It is a shame that he and Sarah Teather did not take that view when they abolished Building Schools for the Future funding. 

The Benefits of the New Willesden Library Centre

As the date for the opening of Willesden Green's new Library Centre approaches, I regret that the Council is not more on the ball in communications.  The available data online is out of date in various ways.  This is frustrating as a number of the usual suspects are eager to portray the project as negatively as possible.  I have never understood why people who claim to be in favour of public services seem to spend most of their time claiming that the said public services are terrible.  In Brent, the libraries have had the most abuse in this way, but it seems to be true of all local government, and indeed the NHS. 

In the case of Willesden Green Library, this includes the failings of the old Library Centre.  It had numerous problems.  It had been designed with a poor exterior which minimised its attractiveness, and thereby undermined its potential for regeneration and activities within it.  I suspect that this is a key reason for the failure of both the Cinema and the Cafe.  The poor sound insulation helped ensure that the community space was unusable for its original purpose of musical performance.  It also suffered from poor environmental standards that meant it was more expensive to heat than it need have been. 

The new Willesden Centre will  have far higher building standards, a better relationship with the wider public realm, a series of community spaces,a rebuilt Museum, a Brent Archive with climate controlled storage, modern access to Brent Council customer services, a cafe, and of course a big new Willesden Library.

I have made these and similar points before.  I wish the Council's communications team were more effective in publicising the benefits for both Willesden and the wider area. 

Brent Libraries Leading the Way

Chris Bryant has publicized the grim numbers for library use in England and Wales.  There are 282 million visits in 1013-14, compared to 322 million four years before.  It is ironic that the article is illustrated with a picture of the former Kensal Rise Library, as Brent is bucking the national trend with both its visit and loan numbers going up.  The Brent Libraries Transformation Project is a model of good practice, not least in its emphasis on "Free public wifi access with improved speeds and more plug sockets" at every library as the Sieghart Review has recommended. 

I hear rumours that Brent is rolling back from suggestions of privatisation.  I was never quite sure what was meant by privatisation anyway, and I am not sure that anyone in Brent Council was either.  It makes me wonder about the planned restructuring of library management.  This envisaged combining the Sports, Parks and Cemeteries post with the Library Arts & Heritage post in a big management role focused on commissioning.  If library privatisation does not go ahead, this would mean that post would spend a lot of time clienting contractors in sports centres, grounds maintenance and so on, but also run a directly employed library service.  I suspect that demands two quite different sets of skills, as well as coping with a big workload as the new Willesden Green Library Centre opens. 

Perhaps this has not been fully thought through?

Misdirected Debate

Yesterday's post about using procurement processes to push the London Living Wage, reminds me of a problem that has often struck me about political debates.  They are so frequently misdirected on to the wrong subjects.

In the case of the Public Realm Contract, there was a lot of publicity aimed at excluding one particular contractor.  This went on even after it was made perfectly clear that excluding that company would be legally and logistically impossible.  In fact, the campaigners were effectively proposing that Veolia be given a lot of extra money at Brent Council's expense. 

In pursuing this futile campaign, they also ignored the many benefits of the public realm contract, including reasonably radical ones like enforcing the London Living Wage.  Even after the contract was through, the campaigners showed no further interest in how it worked.  This means that the scrutiny of such matters is sporadic, and often occurs far too late to influence the process.

For example, there has been little attention paid to the current Brent budget proposals to eliminate street cleaning in the majority of Brent streets.  Stopping that proposal now would probably save a lot of trouble later on, as I am sure that if it goes ahead the Council will be forced into a u-turn at great expense.  Yet it looks as if it will be nodded through, and the controversy will only be stirred up once it is actually implemented.

London Living Wage and Brent Council Procurement

One of Brent' Council's commitments on the London Living Wage is to use its procurement process to get contractors to adopt the London Living Wage for all their employees.  An exception is made for Adult Social Care contracts.  The London Living Wage has already been awarded in the cases of LoHac and the Public Realm Contract.  Despite their supposedly progressive stance, Brent Green Party has not shown any interest in this aspect of the Council.  It is, however, one of the most effective ways that Brent Council can address the rising cost of living for Londoners.

In principle, it should be possible to draw up a list of future contracts and estimate the cost of the policy.  Hopefully, this will be part of the proposed review of Brent Passenger Services.  I suggested before that one of the reasons that reviews of passenger services in other Boroughs were so disastrous was that they tried to cut corners to meet financially driven targets.  Committing to the London Living Wage in this area (which would just be an extension of the Council policy agreed years ago) would be an indication that Brent Council cares about quality of service and not just cutting costs.

Savings from LoHac Contract

Thinking about Brent Council's budget again, I wonder what is expected from the LoHac agreement?  I introduced this at the Brent Executive back in 2012.  As I recall, officers were cautious in their estimates of savings, as it was a new contract of a very different type to the ones we had done before.

The logic is one of shared services giving economy of scale.  When it was introduced in 2013, only Brent and Barnet came on (as new Boroughs join as their existing contracts expire).  By now, many more Boroughs should have joined, and therefore the savings should be greater. 

The Queensbury and Local Listing

I had a recent exchange on twitter about the local listing of The Queensbury in Willesden.  This was actually covered a long time ago at the Planning Committee meeting of 19 February 2015 (see page 3 of the minutes).  The actual document we were discussing is hard to find, as it is buried away in a supplementary. 

According to the Save The Queensbury Group, they had been promised this review of locally listed buildings, but not been told about it, which seems rather slack.  However, as the documents show, it did happen, although The Queensbury was not listed.

The Save Queensbury group feel this disadvantages them in the Planning Inquiry that has just finished.  I am more skeptical.  Local listing merely means that the officers point out to the Committee that a building is considered of significance.  It is a "material consideration", but that in no way binds the Committee.  If you look at the list in the Supplementary, some buildings are there to be taken off the list as they no longer exist.  It is therefore very different from a statutory listing, such as the former Dollis Hill House.  That requires permission from the Secretary of State, which can be very hard to obtain. 

End of Local Welfare Assistance in Brent?

I hear that Brent's Local Welfare Assistance is under threat as a result of further central government cuts.  Of course, local welfare assistance has been in danger for a long time, but this looks as if it could be the end.  The rumour is that funding will cease entirely from April, and Brent will only continue with the scheme until the funding from this year's budget runs out.  If so, that could impose serious hardship on many of the most vulnerable people in our community.

UPDATE

There now appears to be an indication that Councils in England & Wales will be granted £74 million for this purpose, which would still represent a halving of the previous (already reduced) funding.  

Council Tax Rises

Martin Francis comments on the possibility of a modest Council Tax rise in Brent.  I have rehearsed the arguments in favour of a small rise before.  The strongest seems to me the effect on the long term future of the Council, similar to that in Scotland. 

This was well understood back in 2011, as the report Martin refers to shows.  The 2011 one off grant was in fact added to reserves on the basis that it would eventually disappear. 

The second argument that seems unarguable is the fairness point.  If Cllr Muhammed Butt had no objection to a rise for the poorest residents under the Council Tax Support scheme (and both as Lead Member for Finance and Leader of the Council he supported it), how can it be fair to have no rise for other residents.  Isn't that the reverse of protecting the most vulnerable?

Mike Pavey Equalities Review

Those interested in the Mike Pavey review into Brent's equalities practices can find it here.  As I noted before, its terms of reference do not address what I would see as the most important questions around Brent Council floundering HR practices. 

More Affordable Housing Say Property Developers

The Guardian has a rather surprising story here.  Property Developers calling for more affordable housing!  And good on Tessa Jowell for following it up.

Closing Library Buildings

Public Libraries News has a post suggesting that sometimes closing a library building is the best choice available.  This is an argument I have been making for some years. 

The location, quality and status of individual libraries is the result of decisions made over many decades for all sorts of reasons.  In Brent, for example, libraries were founded between the 1890s and 1950s in a number of places.  No doubt at the time finance and other contingencies played their part.  Since that time important facts have changed, such as the distribution of population.

I think the piece is wrong, however, to suggest that a lack of protest necessarily means that the library is not needed, or that the presence of vociferous protests necessarily means a particular building is vital.  Unfortunately some kinds of community, that may have the greatest need, are least prone to protesting.  Other areas with less need can be full of articulate people who are good at mobilizing protests.  Simply being driven by the number of protests could lead to some very skewed decisions.

Another curiosity that struck me during the passage of Brent's Libraries Transformation Project is that people often protest vicariously.  Many times I encountered people who said things along the lines of "I don't use libraries much but it is important for group X."  This opinion being based on gut instinct rather than the kind of assessment that the High Court judge described as "rigorous" and "thorough".  Ignoring such an assessment in order to placate protest groups would have meant that the Council would not have achieved the success that Brent Libraries now have. 

Willesden Green Library Topping Out

I understand that the topping out ceremony of the new Willesden Green Library Centre is due on 12 February.  The centre itself is due to open in June.  This will mark the final stage of the Libraries Transformation Project which has already seen so much success for Brent Libraries. 

UPDATE

Topping out is a milestone in the building project.  It marks the completion of the structure, although a lot of work remains to be done inside.

What will Happen to Brent Street Cleaning?

As far as I can see the budget option of ceasing to clean most of Brent's streets remains on the table.  I still find this rather amazing.  Aside from the dubious lawfulness of the idea, I don't think the public would stand it.  If it is passed in the budget in March, I suspect that Brent Council will recoil from actually doing it, and scrabble around for some alternative savings.  If the proposal is actually implemented, I suspect the public outcry will force a u-turn, which might well cost a lot more than the proposed saving.

Harlesden Jubilee Clock

Harlesden Town Web site reminds us that the Harlesden Jubilee Clock will have its official opening ceremony on 14 February, marking the completion of the Harlesden Town Centre refurbishment. 

Transport Test for Libraries

I notice that Barnet libraries have decided that a 30 minute public transport journey is a reasonable distance to go to reach your nearest library.  Lincolnshire, in their libraries consultation which was overturned by judicial review, argued that a 30 minute car journey was a reasonable test.  Both of these seem less generous than the standard adopted in Brent 's Libraries Transformation Project which saw 97% of the population within 1.5 miles of a Brent library.  Even just walking that would take an able bodied person not more than 30 minutes.  By either public transport, cycling or car it would take rather less.

Of course distance and journey time are not the only relevant tests of accessibility, but it seems to me that Brent's six library network is probably one of the most accessible in the UK.

Evidence on Community Managed Libraries

I have remarked before that community managed libraries have been widely adopted as a strategy without any real evidence that they work.  A little more has come out about the Manchester experience.  It makes gloomy reading for volunteer library advocates. 

What Happened to Make Willesden Green?

Thinking recently about the group Make Willesden Green, I decided to check their web site to see what they were up to.  The most recent entry was dated 23 October 2014.  It consists of a number of complaints about Willesden Green Library Centre.  Since the Centre is due to open soon, I presume the group will then have no more activity. 

Query on Barham Park Trust

After yesterday's post, I thought about the report at the next Barham Park Trust agenda on changing the governance structure.  It goes through a lot of reasoning about how the current peculiar Trust structure might be changed only to recommend no change.  At a time when the Council is under increasing pressure for resources, what is the reason for generating that report?

UPDATE

Martin Francis has noticed the same report and commented on it here.   He seems to hope that the structure (which is itself only two or three years old) will be changed.  I certainly hope not as it sounds like another attempt by the likes of Paul Lorber to pursue their own agendas rather than a useful innovation.  It was his successful bamboozling of the Planning Committee to refuse change of use that caused the needless expense of a planning appeal.  I don't think any more of his captious objections should be accommodated. 

Barham Park Trust Developments

Further details about the buildings of the Barham Park Trust have been published. 

• ACAVA now has a formal 15 year lease (starting from September), and hope to start a community arts project in March.  
• The "Card room" is proposed to be let out as a cafe, as the earlier public consultation suggested.  From the report, it is clear that the Card room is only in a sufficiently good state of repair for leasing with substantial investment. This is why it was set aside when the decision to rent to ACAVA was made.  Park cafes work well elsewhere, in Gladstone Park or Roundwood Park for example, so I hope the Barham proposal comes off.
• The Committee is also asked to approve a regularization of the occupation by the Veterans Club in the Snooker Room. 
• There is also a proposal to put the Lounge area out to a permanent occupation, rather than the current ad hoc arrangements.

It strikes me as extraordinary that it should take so long to sort out these buildings.  Of course a lot of the reason is the misguided decision of the Planning Committee to refuse change of use.

Incidentally, capital funding has also been provided for outdoor gym equipment in the park.  This is the kind of incremental improvement thatis possible now that the Park has a long term strategy.

South Kilburn District Heating

It looks like Brent Council's Executive on Monday will be asked to approve the start of a procurement process to create a district heating scheme in South Kilburn.  This is the second area where a district heating scheme might come forward (the other being Wembley), and has been a long time in the coming.  It is good to see the prospect of greater environmental benefits. 

Brent Council HR Review Likely to Disappoint

Those hoping that the HR review announced after the Rosemary Clarke employment tribunal verdict would deal with the obvious problems in Brent Council's Human Resources Department are likely to be disappointed.  The review has now been published, and it fails to address any of the issues that I believe are seriously undermining Brent Council.  Until these underlying issues are addressed the problems will continue.

UPDATE

It has been pointed out that the report has yet to be published.  This is true, but the whole inquiry is designed not to answer what I would regard as the key questions.

Brent Museum and Archive Strategy Published

I was puzzled by the long delay in producing a Brent Museum and Archives strategy.  It is finally going before the next Brent Council Cabinet meeting on Monday. 

These sort of heritage services are non-statutory and therefore particularly subject to threat in the financial climate caused by central government cuts.  Brent is doing much better than many Boroughs, in opening its new facility the Willesden Green Cultural Centre.  This reproduces the museum and improves the archives (particularly in document storage).  It is therefore a welcome area where the Council has a good story.  There is also plenty of innovative stuff in the report, for instance relating to digitization and outreach. 

I note that one of the weaknesses of the current museum service is on marketing and communications.  This is an area that could be shared with the library service, which also has long had a need for better marketing.  I wanted to address this as part of the Libraries Transformation Project, but was stymied by lack of funding.  Perhaps a joint approach across Libraries, Arts & Heritage might be better. 

One great unmentioned in the report is the future financing, with just some vague stuff about "options" being considered.  I speculate that this may have been the cause of the delay in publishing, as finance is likely to be a thorny issue in this as so many other areas. 

Brent Council's Welfare Assistance Scheme

The next Cabinet papers for Brent Council have a report on Brent's local welfare assistance scheme.  As I have explained before, this is being threatened by further government cutbacks.  The recommendations involve a number of changes.

Some of these are prompted by having seen the scheme in operation for about one and a half years.  When Brent was first forced to design its own scheme, the demographic information made available by the DWP was extremely limited.  There is a case for saying the original scheme design was too strict, as Brent has only spent a small proportion of the budget.  It also appears not to be reached certain parts of the population e.g. pensioners.

Essentially the Council is proposing a holding operation whilst it waits to see if central government will cut funding altogether, which I fear is all too likely.

Brent Bulky Item Collections

Looking again at the Brent Budget proposals, I thought I would return to the proposed charge for bulky item collection.  I can see some logic to this, in that the Council is increasingly seeking to charge service users as close as possible to the cost of the service provided.  The free service can therefore be seen as something of an anomaly.

Nonetheless I have repeatedly argued that the free service is better preserved.  My key argument in this is that the items are likely to be otherwise dumped on the street.  Under the L:iberal Democrats, the introduction of the £25 charge for collecting bulky items led to a huge fall in collections.  I never got a satisfactory answer to where these items went once the Council stopped collecting them for free.

It also illustrates the difficulties behind some of the figures in budget proposals.  The charge never yielded anything like the income expected, because the number of collections had dropped so much.  This is important to bear in mind when thinking about all the officer proposals.

Confusion over Brent Library Privatisation

There appears to be confusion as to the nature of Brent's proposed library privatisation.  The three interviewees quoted in the Kilburn Times piece all have rather odd comments.  The FKRL campaigner is critical of the concept of privatisation, which seems odd for someone who has spent years campaigning in favour of privatisation.  Former councillor Paul Lorber claims that the library service has been "decimated" when in fact it is considerably better than when it had more buildings.  Cllr James Denselow's comment seems ambiguous as to what the proposed arrangements are.  I have posted before that there are various possibilities.  These could range from a technical arrangement, a company where the Council is the sole shareholder in the same way as an ALMO or a commerical provider like Greenwich Leisure Ltd.  Some of the possibilities of Trusts are covered here. 

It would be helpful if all this could be made clearer.

UPDATE

Responding to the comment below, by "privatisation" I mean the transfer of a public asset to a private organisation and/or continuing public subsidy for the same.  By that definition, which I think most people use, all volunteer libraries are privatised.

Brent Council Tax Support Scheme

Brent's Council Tax Support scheme is getting its annual review tonight.  The first Full Council meeting on this subject attracted little comment despite the controversial nature of the proposals.  The following year saw a small number of protesters disrupt the meeting.  We shall see if they follow similar tactics this year.

Local Welfare Funds Unspent

More data has emerged on local welfare schemes.  There is clearly a big underspend problem in many authorities, including Brent, which has spent only 19.9% of its allocation.  I am sure Tory ministers will try to blame this on local government ineffectiveness, when it is really caused by Central government creating uncertainty.  As local authorities cannot rely on secure funding, many are taking an excessively stringent approach to gatekeeping, so that many deserving applicants are put off.  This was predictable a long time ago. 

New Bookshop in Kilburn

I am glad to see a new bookshop, Offside Books, has opened on 92 Willesden Lane in Kilburn.  It follows the sad demise of the Kilburn Bookshop in 2010.  I hope they do as well as the nearby Queens Park Books on Salusbury Road and West End Lane Books in West Hampstead. 

Eric Pickles Bin Humilation

Eric Pickles can now proudly claim that literally no Councils are using his £250 million fund to commit to weekly bin collections.  No Councils have taken the policy up because it simply does not make sense for them to do so.  Perhaps Eric Pickles (and others) should look at the workability of polici4es before going ahead with them. 

Stickability of Budget Proposals

Talking to people about the Brent Council Budget, I find one of the most worrying things is the assumption that whatever proposals are put in the budget will just happen and the savings be achieved.  In fact I doubt very much that this is the case.

One quite senior councillor I spoke to said he was worried that not all the projects could achieve their savings within the financial year.  I had to tell him that I would be surprised if any of the schemes will achive full savings within a year.  Firstly, the decision making process (including consultation and so on) is fairly lengthy.  Implementation, depending on the project can similarly lengthy, particularly if it involves investing in new equipment, training people and/or changing behaviour.

There can also be risks from unforeseen factors, such as legal action, unexpected costs, project delays and so on that may wipe out savings entirely.  Anything that involves predicting or suppressing demand is inherently risky.  Furthermore, there are one off costs such as staff redundancy that are virtually guarenteed to push at least part of the full year saving into the following year.

As I look at the proposed savings, I cannot help but suspect that many of these proposals look half baked.  Just because you put a line in a budget document does not mean it actually comes to pass. 

What Form Might Brent Library Privatisation Take?

One of the lines in the Brent Council Budget Proposals reads: "Transfer management of libraries to an established library trust resulting in business rates savings."  Given the controversy that has often surrounded Brent Libraries, I am surprised that this has not drawn more attention.  It could easily be a form of privatisation.  The possibilities that occur to me are:

a) It is a largely technical and legalistic proposal to maximise business rate savings.  This would be a minimalist position.  The Council would probably have to pay attention to how far libraries would continue to work with the rest of the Council (Would they still host Brent Dance Month for example?  Would co-located libraries like Wembley Library continue to interact with the rest of the building?).  In an era where the "culture" parts of the Council are expected to work together more and more, it would be a shame to erect arificial barriers to such co-operation.

b) The phrase "transfer management" suggests something more ambitious.  Not just founding a Trust but having the management taken over by a private company as in Greenwich or Hounslow.  This would be a lot more complicated.  A full procurement would need specification of a contract and a full tendering exercise for what would be a sizable contract.  In itself that would be a substantial one-off cost.  The Localism Act appears to have made this whole issue even more complicated than it was before.  The redundancy of senior management is likely to make the whole process even more difficult.  

c) The phrase "established library trust" suggests an existing body, and obvious one is the Trust that runs Harrow and Ealing libraries.  This option was discussed when I was on the Executive, and rejected.  THe business rate saving was largely a piece of accountancy smoke and mirrors (I understand that the rules may have been partly changed since then), and it seemed to me that all the things a private firm could do to cut costs could also be done by the Council.  Of course, having direct employees also gives you more control and we wanted to ensure the success of the Libraries Transformation Project by having hands on management.  Therefore we only went for the Sports Centre part of the project.  

d) Another interesting question is where this leaves the proposed community managed libraries that are seeking to take over various buildings in Brent.  These all seem to have largely stalled.  FKRL are waiting to get into the building, which the owner is trying to sell.  The group at the former Preston Library are running up against numerous difficulties.  The group in the former Cricklewood building seem to have moved more to a community centre type solution, and the Barham group are attempting to bid for the cardroom (which has been assessed as uninhabitable and to expensive to upgrade).  How these groups might be affected by the Localism Act and a new procurement exercise for library services I don't know.  

As with many of the proposals in the Budget papers, the actual shape of the proposed changes is not terribly clear.

Parks, Planning and Building

I see that some people believe that Brent is keen to sell off, or build on parks. This idea seems to crop up every so often, but has very little substance.  There are occasional attempts to build on parks, but they tend to meet fierce resistance.  Such resistance lay behind the failure to prevent the demolition of Dollis Hill House, the rejection of the Greenhouse application in the Welsh Harp, the demise of a proposed land swap deal at Furness Pocket Park, the development of a free school in Gladstone Park and probably others I have forgotten about.

The only example I can think of of any development being allowed in a Brent park was the Sea Cadet building in Welsh Harp.  I don't think that really comes into this category.  As it happens I was on the Planning Committee that considered it, and I believe I swung the Committee round to reject the officers' recommendation to refuse.  The permission actually decreased the footprint of the building slightly although it had an extra storey.  In the context, I don't think there was any negative impact on park users.

In fact, building on parks is incredibly hard.  The public resist.  The political parties are similarly hostile.  Brent Labour Party has a long standing opposition to building on green spaces.  Above all, planning policy is highly resistant to building on a public park, regarding it as equivalent to green belt.  The proposal in King Eddy's for the London Welsh School will therefore be up against some very tough planning considerations.

Welsh Harp Environmental Education Centre

One of the smaller cuts proposed in Brent's budget papers is that of the Welsh Harp Environmental Education Centre. 

The Centre faced a similar threat back in 2011, when it was also proposed for a cut.  It was saved at the last moment as part of a series of amendments by Cllr Ann John.  This was achieved through a deal with Careys (which is the parent company of the recycling firm Seneca)  John Carey Jr had grown up in the area and had fond memories of the Centre, and got his firm to stump up a substantial part of the running cost.  More income is generated through lettings and Brent Council make up the rest.  The budget proposal is to delete Brent's contribution.

This actually seems to me to be an area where a Community Trust style solution might work.  I have been sceptical as to how these "community" arrangements applied to libraries, but the WHEEC seesm a different case.  It is already set up with a great deal of external funding already so it has a track record as an effective free standing organisation.  I can imagine it might be able to make up the difference through some combination of lettings, charging schools and individual philanthropic contributions.  As a non-Council body it could be better placed to apply for some grants, especially lottery funding.

My main fear is that such a solution could be lost in the wider Budget debate.  As the Environment and Neighbourhood Services Department is being abolished, there is likely to be a certain amount confusion as staff are reorganised.  Indeed I suspect the staff responsible for finding any solution are likely to be working out their redundancy notices.

Charging for IT Access at Libraries

I see that Brighton Libraries, with a Green Party administration, is starting to charge for IT access at libraries, as well as other events.   I wonder whether the Greens are out of date on charging for IT at libraries.  My reading of the Lincolnshire Judicial Review on libraries was that IT provision is now part of the legal public library duty, and therefore cann ot be subject to charging. 

Blunders and Operational Disconnect

I have been reading "The Blunders of Our Governments" by by Anthony King and Ivor Crewe recently.  The sheer incompetence of our political system often worries me.  The authors try to identify a number of factors behind appalling blunders like the PPP, the Poll Tax and so on. 

One area they identify is "operational disconnect" where the decision makers neither know nor care about how to actually implement policies.  They siuggest this is becoming more common in central government as a result of the Next Steps agencies separating the administration of policy from the policy makers.  However, it strikes me as a possbible danger in local government as more and more services are commissioned rather than dealt with inhouse.  This doesn't have to lead to a disconnect, but it is a danger.  Meanwhile, there is still the old fashioned problem of decisionmakers simply not caring abhout whether their policy will work in practice, but that is another discussion.

Folly of Austerity.

FlipChartFairyTales has another reminder of how wrongheaded the whole austerity message is.  In fact it is a con by the Conservative Party and its little helpers in the Liberal Democrats to foist a small government ideology on a country that doesn't want it. 

Harlesden Town Centre Close to Completion

I am glad to see that the Harlesden Town Centre development is almost complete.  The Jubilee Clock is due to be replaced in February.  One regret I do have is that the area in front of Harlesden Methodist Church does not have any street trees.  They were in the original projections, but have probably been removed for financial reasons.  Harlesden is quite a hard urban landscape, so more trees would benefit it enormously.

Brent Fairtrade Accreditation

Hidden in Brent's budget proposals is the option of ceasing the Borough's Fairtrade accreditation.  I can't help feeling that this is a retrograde step.  I was highly critical of the Liberal Democrats record on Fairtrade, and correspondingly proud that Labour achieved Fairtrade accreditation for Brent.  I have sometimes cited Fairtrade as an example of where having a Labour run Brent makes a difference.  I am not sure that not going for Fairtrade accreditation would actually make any financial difference, in which case there seems no reason to give up Brent's support for Fairtrade.

The Costs of Legal Actions

I thought I would do a post on the possible costs of legal actions, even if as in the Bailey Judgement, you win your case on every point.  I recall a member of the current Brent Executive being quite dismissive of the potential dangers of getting into a legal wrangle with Veolia over the Public Realm Contract.  The nicest thing I can say about that is that it demonstrated a certain naivety. 

The first cost is in poor publicity.  In the libraries case, you can argue that the decision to prioritise winning the Court case over the public relations was the wrong one, but in practice I think it is hard for local authorities to do otherwise.  The reality is that journalists want a David vs Goliath story where plucky local residents take on a Council behemoth.  Even where they make some kind of balance, they tend to lead off with "Brent Council did all sorts of bad things" at great length, followed by the phrase "The Court was told."  If you are lucky you will get a brief bit at the end denying that the Council is wrong.  They just aren't interested in writing a more nuanced story, so they won't.  A period of negative publicity is therefore inevitable, and the Council just has to ride through it.

A sidelight on this process is the modern purpose of celebrities as all purpose experts.  In the Brent case, I suspect many had made not the slightest attempt to understand the policy they were criticising but simply repeated a line.  This worked in terms of generating negative publicty, although it was of little use in the court itself.

The second is delay, which for a local authority probably costs money as well.  Brent had budgeted for a half year saving in the first year, that is that savings would begin from 1st September.  Even with a fairly swift hearing in July, the High Court judgement was not handed down until 13 October.  Only at that point was the Council able to swiftly act to start implementing the savings, before a further appeal caused more delay.  The final set of delays ran out in December.  This had a cashable impact, but also an impact on the uncertainity of staff and increasing difficulties in running a service where the staff were leaving because they expected the library litigants to lose.

A further hazard, which was perhaps specific to the Brent case, was that the opposing lawyers set off a barrage of letters trying to micro-manage the library service, and threatening injunctions during the course of the case.  This was eventually dealt with by suggesting that they could apply for an injunction and if so the correspondence would be made available to the Court.  This quietened them down, but a lot of energy had to be expended in the interim.

Arguably, there was still a cloud hanging over the service until the final collapse of the Court case on 3 February.  I think this last stage of legal action really was just designed as a delaying tactic in a war of political attrition rather than an effort to raise any serious legal issue. I am not alone in regarding the use of the law as a political delaying tactic as wrong. 

Another effect, which is quite curious and counter intuitive is that the Court case is now quite binding on the Council's future decisions on libraries.  This is, of course, the opposite of what the litigants intended, but resulted from the Council winning the case.  The High Court judgement gives an unassailable legal basis for the Council in running its library service.  If, like me, you regard Brent Libraries service as a great success, you may see this as a good thing.  It is a key part of why subsequent efforts to undermine the service have failed, and only relatively minor cuts are posed in the current budget round.  Others, who set a lower value on the success of Brent libraries than I do, may lament the decreased flexibility of the Council's decision making. 

Library Study Spaces in Brent

I recently had a conversation in which I was asked whether Brent had more study spaces in its libraries than previously, and I am not sure of the answer.  Certainly it was a concern during the consultation on the Libraries Transformation Project.  It was particularly raised by the Brent Youth Parliament, and lay behind the pledge for "Improved, flexible study areas and quiet zones to meet increased demand", and also underlies the provision of other services such as homework clubs. 

Thinking about measuring this, one would have to count up not only the number of desk spaces, but also the number of available computers, the number of less formal sitting places and wider multi-functional areas.  One would also have to take into account the longer opening hours of the enhanced Library service compared to the 12 building model.

For instance, as Wembley Library is roughly three times bigger than the old Town Hall Library it is fair to say it has more study spaces of all kinds.  Since it has WiFi, it also has a number of spaces that are not formally laid out as such.  As part of the Civic Centre, you can also see teenagers using the wider building for study as well as the Library itself.

Brent's other libraries have also effectively expanded the space available.  In particular, Kilburn Library has been rewired to accommodate many more computers and study spaces.  Willesden Library, when it opens this Summer, will be somewhat bigger than its predecessor, and hopefully better designed.  Like Wembley Library, it will also have multi-functional spaces that could be used as study space.  Ealing Road Library has also been redesigned to create a modest increase in study space.   Harlesden Library has lots of potential, especially if the BACES space above were better used, and of course Kingsbury Library is also available. 

One issue  have always found frustrating is trying to get schools to open out more to let their spaces be used for study.  I have never really understood why this seems so difficult. 

More Threats to Local Welfare

I have written about local welfare schemes before.  It appears, in a declaration dropped out just before Christmas, that the central government is not guaranteeing funding for these.  This is as clear an example of the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats deliberately targeting the poorest as you will find.  Of course, Eric Pickles will argue that Councils can still provide money, but the truth is that as Council budgets shrink all areas come under more and more pressure.  Whatever resources are allocated to this will have to be cut from another important area, as there are no areas of "unimportant" spending left.  All this in pursuit of a shrinking the state agenda that no one voted for, is economically counter-productive, and that ministers themselves have never really been honest about.

Library Consultation in Bristol

I quite like the format of Bristol's consultation on its libraries strategy.  It seems much more imaginative than many municipal consultations.  However, it will not allow Bristol to simply sidestep that key problems of how to make its shrinking budget meet its library needs.  However skilfully designed, hard questions about sensible priorities, the most effective ways of working and so on have to be answered, and ultimately someone has to make a decision and be accountable for it.

Building in Harlesden?

Yesterday I noticed that the triangular site at the junction between Craven Park and Church Road has a mechanical digger parked in it.  I hope that indicates that something is finally happening there.  It has been derelict for as long as I can remember.

The Complexity of Budget Consultation

The New Year holds out the prospect of a huge consultation exercise on the extent and nature of cuts in Brent Council's budget for the next two years.  The details can be found here.  We need to recall that the Council is being forced into these cuts by central government diktat. 

However, I think there is another worry here, which is how on earth is the consultation going to be carried out?  The sheer complexity of the Council budget over a two year period, coupled with the scale of the change, makes constructing a consultation a daunting task.  The governance of Brent Council has been seriously weakened since we won the judicial review on libraries in 2011.  Let's look at some of the practical problems behind putting together a consultation that avoids a legal challenge.

1) A huge number of service users and organisations will be affected, some of them drastically.  It is therefore likely that a broad range of bodies might consider legal action to counter what they see as a major threat to themselves.  Solicitors firms are known to systematically trawl Council documents looking for (to them) lucrative legal actions.

2)  One of the principles of a legal consultation is the need for adequate information for the consultees in a form that they might be expected to use.  Here the sheer complexity of the task is a major barrier.  If there is too much documentation, you can argue that members of the public cannot be expected to wade through; if there is too little, you can say that they are being kept in the dark about important facts.  There are many important facts that are far from clear in the Cabinet papers passed in December 2015.  For instance, the full extent of "poison pill" arrangements when disposing of buildings, the extent of match funding, the knock on effects for other services, the real meaning of bland phrases like "contain demographic pressures".

3) The Council is required to assess the equality impacts of its decisions.  The sheer number of potential impacts, and the complexity of their actual effect on all the different equality strands is colossal.  I find it very hard to see how it can be conveyed to a public audience, which arguably undermines the legalty of the consultation.  Indeed, I wonder how far the councillors who ultimately make the decision will actually understand the impacts.

4) Getting the public to understand the context of local government.  Having been through many such exercises, my experience is that many members of the public are (understandably) quite innocent of how local government is funded and what the realistic options are.  This was confirmed in the consultations in Brent last year, but is well known to anyone who has seriously engaged with such efforts. There are a host of basic concepts, such as fiduciary duty, procurement rules, the materiality of particular factors that are simply not widely understood.

5) The false impression it may give people that they are engaged in a referendum exercise where they say yes or no, and the councillors are simply bound by that.  By law, the councillors are the decision makers and have to use their own judgements in deciding (for instance) equality impacts.  They cannot pass that responsibility on.  Indeed there is a danger that the councillors themselves do not understand this, and vote through what the consultation seems to demand, and thereby find themselves subject to a legal action over what is called fettered discretion. 

6) The danger of "decibel planning" where whoever shouts the loudest gets the most resources.  It is inherent in such exercises that particular groups can organise to protect their own interests.  Classically, the wealthier, well connected and better educated tend to be better at putting their case than the more deprived.  Yet it is the most deprived who are hardest hit by cuts.  In a sense this is an impossible judgement that depends on one's values.

7) The possibility of actual misinformation in the consultation documentation.  It appeared to me that some of the options given in the Cabinet papers back in December were not only unrealistic, but might be inherently unlawful.  I am particularly thinking of not cleaning residential streets.  My understanding was that some level of cleaning was legally required (although the level can be reduced of course)  In the past I would have had confidence that Executive papers would have been adequately checked by a lawyer, but following the growing weakness of governance in the Council I am no longer so sure.  This could impact in terms of consultees being given an option that was not realistic, as well as the inherent illegality of the proposal.

Constructing a consultation that can adequately navigate these hazards is no easy task. 

Reducing Cleaning in Brent

Looking at Brent's budget options again, I see that reducing cleaning is among those mooted.  The suggested reductions come in three bits.  The first, ceasing to clean residential streets altogether, strikes me as impossible.  I had always understood that was a statutory requirement, so just not doing it would break the law, quite apart from the other issues.  If I am right in this, I don't see what the point is in having it in the options consulted on.

The other two parts, taking away mechanical sweepers and weekend litter picking in parks, are possible, but will not be popular.  I would think it would also have knock on effects as the litter blows about.  Street cleaning and grounds maintenance is one area which very definitely identified in the public mind as a Council responsibility, so cutting it so drastically is politically extremely hazardous.