It is rather odd that a Brent Labour councillor has to resort to a Freedom of Information request to his own Council about their performance regarding Freedom of Information requests. This is what Cllr Dan Filson did on Thursday. He got a response the next day which is amazing, However he did get fobbed off like the rest of us often are:
I am still waiting for the answer to an FoI request made on November 28th 2014. I hasd heard that the maintenance of large trees had been left out of the Publc Realm contract in which Veolia took over parks maintenance. It had been suggested to me that this was an oversight that would result in additional expenditure.
This is the response to my intial request:
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I am still waiting for the answer to an FoI request made on November 28th 2014. I hasd heard that the maintenance of large trees had been left out of the Publc Realm contract in which Veolia took over parks maintenance. It had been suggested to me that this was an oversight that would result in additional expenditure.
This is the response to my intial request:
1. State who is responsible for safety checks, maintenance, felling and replacementMy follow-up which is still awaiting a response:
of trees in Brent's parks, open spaces and cemeteries.
The Contractor is only responsible for minor tree works which can be carried out
whilst working at ground level. The Council is responsible for major tree works.
Grounds maintenance staff from Veolia and the Council’s monitoring officers
(horticulture) would look at trees when they are working in the park or carrying out
monitoring visits. The Coucnil would then engage specialist contractors to carry out
the major works.
1. Is the cost of major tree works by a sub-contractor included in
the Public Realm budget out-sourced to Veolia?
2. If not, what is the expected annual cost of this sub-contractedBREAKING NEWS: Having posted this article at the weekend I got this answer about 9.30am this morning:
work (recognising it might vary considerably due to major weather
events such as storms)?
1: No
2: The Council’s street trees maintenance contractor is Gristwood & Toms. The budget for street tree maintenance works was £500,000 in 2014/15, but this is expected to fall to £450,000 in 2015/16.
28 comments:
There's another, non financial problem with this. I met the former Gladstone Park manager yesterday. He's now TUPEd to Veolia, and has been moved away from the park. His replacement - decent enough bloke - knows street cleansing but diddly squat about parks.
The relevance of this can be seen with what happened to a wonderful, old, willow near the much lamented Dollis Hill House. It collapsed in last year's storms, and said park manager decided to salvage what they could. So, the trunk was left, fallen, with those branches that were alive growing up from it. It actually looks rather fine and is a great habitat.
If something like this happens again, what's the betting that the tree simply gets felled? Or left as a high stump? BHP used contractors to massacre two old cherry trees on the other side of my road. They look appalling and are much missed.
I was very much afraid when privatisation of parks and BHP grounds maintenance ws first mnooted that we would lose the service of skilled staff who loved their parks with a cheaper service. It appears to be happening: http://wembleymatters.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/oppose-brent-parks-service.html
Martin. It is regrettable that parks are now likely to be less well maintained and that it is lower cost, but what do you suggest in the face of £150 million of cuts between 2008 and 2018? Virtually everything will be half as good as it was in 2008 in 2 years. what service would you cut by 75% so that trees and parks could be reduced by just 25% (against an average of 50%)?
You and me both, Martin, and it's exactly what has happened. The same thing happened with Streetcare, too - the brilliant manager we had got TUPEd to Veolia and promptly took redundancy. I don't blame her at all for that, it was the right thing to do, as she was being pushed elsewhere. And, the Veolia manager we had has also now gone. That local knowledge is so hard to get, almost irreplaceable, and indeed, costs money when it's lost.
Councillor Dan Filson
Welcome to Brent Council where they make up the rules as they go along.
If the rules do not fit then they Just say We do not have such information or deny the existence of the said information.
For the benefit of those who, like me, had forgotten or not known the meaning of TUPE as an acronym, it's "Transfer of Undertaking (Protection of Employment)"
Oh, sorry, I should have expanded on TUPE. Protection of employment is far too ofen simply not the case.
I don't quite get why 2008 is being used as a reference point by someone who is a Labour councillor. You'd think they'd use 2010 as the baseline, given Labour were the government before that.
Actually, the reason for the response to my question being as it was is that their records are kept on a year ending 31 March basis and my question was poorly worded implying I wanted the data on a year to 5 May basis, for which they don't hold records in that format and the FOI (Freedom of Information Act) regulations don't encourage answers saying "you've asked the wrong question but here's the answer
to the question you should have asked". I should have known this from a brief period in Whitehall when I was keeping records of FOI requests passing through my department there. I'll get the question restructured and asked in a format which enables an answer.
I understand the grip on answering FOI requests on time has improved since appointment of an officer specifically charged with this role, but my reason for asking the question about FOI performance in a pubic way was that if the performance is improving, that deserves recognition and possibly praise and if it isn't that deserves public shaming.
I am hardly surprised if a member of staff gets lots of nominations after a campaign is run - in some cases to score a point against the Council and its leadership to get her nominations. But it's a little hard on other hard-working staff who as a result don't - in that year anway - get nominated. Is the data rightly kept a secret? Yes, in my view as someone doing an obscure but excellent job will invariably get fewer nominations than someone doing a fine job in a more highly visible role. Without the context, the d ata might cast a shadow over the worthier member of staff.
There's no conspiracy to conceal.
Cllr Filson - why are you openly leaking your activities to a blog which represents the Green Party?
Whoops! Filson caught defying the leadership edict by reading this blog. I predict he won't last long...
Good to see a bit of sturdy independence from Labour backbenchers. Next target should be getting answers on the failure to prosecute in the Kensal Rise fake emails case.
What are your thoughts on Cara Davani and Brent Council being found guilty of bullying? Are you pushing for Davani to be sacked, is she not the same person telling staff that bullying will be not be tolerated? Your thoughts please.
1. There's not just one award
2. Rosemarie Clarke's case is exceptional, and for reasons which are completely and exclusively of Davani, Gilbert and Butt's making.
Yes, well. ;) I met some Labour councillors who I knew well last Saturday - still like them. Their comment on the "ban" on reading Martin's blog was cheerfully and amusingly unprintable!
On the subject of FOI - an astonishing and worrying response from the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the body legally empowered 'to uphold information rights in the public interest, promoting openness by public bodies and data privacy for individuals':
'FOIA does not cover the accuracy of information held'.
This statement was made in response to a request to establish which of three versions of the Option Agreement to purchase Kensal Rise Library now in the public domain is a true copy of the original signed and dated document. The latter has never been seen by any independent body or individual.
The ICO letter continues:
'I understand that there appears [sic] to be other versions of the option agreement which you now have in your possession...
You may want to contact the College [All Souls] to ask it to clarify this discrepancy and if necessary make a further FOIA request to clarify the point. This is not however something that the ICO would take forward...'
Unsurprisingly, All Souls doesn't want to play ball, while requests to Brent's chief executive, Christine Gilbert, to oversee a viewing of the original document by two Brent residents at the college's solicitor, Farrer, have been stone-walled. The weary reason given by both parties is that Brent Council employed independent legal counsel to check the document. What neither Brent nor All Souls will admit is that the independent counsel was only ever shown a copy. Without sight of the original, the authenticity of the Option Agreement, and therefore the sale of the former library building to Andrew Gillick can never be confirmed.
The ICO's disclaimer re the 'accuracy of information' effectively reduces the FOIA to a charlatan's charter, the age-old question of who guards the guards raising its head once again.
Meantime, it seems the ICO is itself ' currently subject to a complaint from its own staff — for failing to comply with the FOIA
http://politicalscrapbook.net/2015/01/information-commissioner-blatantly-in-breach-of-freedom-of-information-act/
O tempora, o mores...
On the subject of FOI - an astonishing and worrying response from the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the body legally empowered 'to uphold information rights in the public interest, promoting openness by public bodies and data privacy for individuals':
'FOIA does not cover the accuracy of information held'.
This statement was made in response to a request to establish which of three versions of the Option Agreement to purchase Kensal Rise Library now in the public domain is a true copy of the original signed and dated document. The latter has never been seen by any independent body or individual.
The ICO letter continues:
'I understand that there appears [sic] to be other versions of the option agreement which you now have in your possession...
You may want to contact the College [All Souls] to ask it to clarify this discrepancy and if necessary make a further FOIA request to clarify the point. This is not however something that the ICO would take forward...'
Unsurprisingly, All Souls doesn't want to play ball, while requests to Brent's chief executive, Christine Gilbert, to oversee a viewing of the original document by two Brent residents at the college's solicitor, Farrer, have been stone-walled. The weary reason given by both parties is that Brent Council employed independent legal counsel to check the document. What neither Brent nor All Souls will admit is that the independent counsel was only ever shown a copy. Without sight of the original, the authenticity of the Option Agreement, and therefore the sale of the former library building to Andrew Gillick can never be confirmed.
The ICO's disclaimer re the 'accuracy of information' effectively reduces the FOIA to a charlatan's charter, the age-old question of who guards the guards raising its head once again.
Meantime, it seems the ICO is itself ' currently subject to a complaint from its own staff — for failing to comply with the FOIA
http://politicalscrapbook.net/2015/01/information-commissioner-blatantly-in-breach-of-freedom-of-information-act/
O tempora, o mores... as apt as ever it was.
If a correction to a story put here is appropriate in which I am mentioned, I don't think it wrong to make that correction here rather than elsewhere. It does not, obviously, indicate my support for the Green Party.
I won't enter into exchanges here on other matters introduced as distractions from the FOI issue.
I should add that my attention - to the fact that Wembley Matters had commented on my FOI request - was drawn by the Deputy Leader of the Council, so inevitably I looked to see what was said.
So Deputy Leader Pavey is also defying the leadership ban on reading Wembley Matters. Wooooooh!
I'm sure Deputy Leader Pavey didn't inhale .........
Wembley Matters is Brent Council's very own porno mag, everyone loves it, everyone uses it, but very few people are prepared to admit it
Not surprising that they don't admit it but very important that they contribute to WM even if only in a few words of agreement to indicate that they're out there and feeling supported.
Martin. Please answer the comment from 25 January 2015 at 19:52. What would you cut more so that the parks savings can be reduced to keep the status quo? And please don't cop-out by saying you would set an illegal 'needs' budget. What do you value budgetarily, less than parks maintenance?
I do wish that if current Labour councillors are going to take a pop at Martin - or anyone - they'd have the guts to use their own names.
There isn't a single Labour councillor who would talk to you, Alison. Stop dreaming.
Does that make Martin Francis Brent's leading pornographer?
He's back! Happy New Year!
Ah yes, my tame stalker! I'm obviiously imagining the huge hug my former vice chair gave me last week and likewise the meeting with another current councillor last night. ;)
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