Were Brent councillors not informed of consultation on council estate parking proposals?

It certainly seems to be so from this letter circulated to Brent Councillors the Head of Housing and Neighbourhoods:

Dear Councillors,

 

You may be aware of a consultation launch by the Project Centre on behalf of Brent Housing Management to introduce off street controlled parking to all Brent Council Estates. 

 

I firstly want to apologise for the breakdown in communication between yourselves and us. I understand this must make it particularly difficult when residents come to you for information and briefing should have been sent to you ahead of the consultation launching.

 

Additionally, there has been interest from the local press and I am working with the communications team on this. A key concern raised via the local media outlets is whether this is a scheme to make money. Please see the link to the Cabinet report and supporting documents:  LINK which includes the financial information associated with this project.

 

I have attached a briefing outlining the key points on the introduction of off street controlled parking and the motivations for this proposed change.

 

All residents have been posted a hard copy of a leaflet (see appendix 1), have the opportunity to attend a face to face meeting and / or submit their comments online. We will be extending the consultation to the end of November to ensure everyone has the opportunity to express their views. We will also be organising a members specific briefing session with our consultants and details for this will follow shortly.

 It appears that the not univerally respected Serco will be enforcing the new arrangements. The briefing indicates that Wing Parking was contracted to undertake parking enforcement in 2012 but then (highlighted in yellow) says Wing is not taking any enforcement action. I wonder how much that lack of action is costing?

Off street controlled parking on Brent Council Estates – Councillor Briefing

Introduction

Prior to transferring back to the Council, Brent Housing Partnership (BHP) contracted Wing Parking to undertake enforcement action on council owned housing estates and this has been in operation since August 2012. In 2012, the government introduced The Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, which reduced Wing Parking’s ability to take any meaningful and effective enforcement action. The Act stopped Wing Parking from accessing information from the Driving Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) and as such, any parking tickets issued cannot be pursued unless driver’s details are already known. This has made it difficult to control parking from non-residents on council owned housing estates. This means that, perversely, Wings can only enforce parking tickets against the residents who have purchased permits. The system is therefore only punishing those it was meant to protect.

Following on-going complaints from residents, Councillors and emergency services regarding obstructive and inconsiderate parking by both residents and non-residents of the estates, BHM set out to review alternative options for parking enforcement on Council housing sites and it was approved in July 2020 for Brent Housing Management to proceed with introducing Traffic Management Orders (TMO) across all Brent Council Estates subject to consultation with residents.

BHM has to date piloted this approach on five Council Estates and implementation on these estate is now underway.

Key points to note

•   Under the existing Wing Parking arrangement, residents pay £10 per year for a parking permit. Under the new proposal, residents will pay £50 per year for a parking permit. Whilst this is a increase compared to £10 per year, Brent Housing Management negotiated a reduced rate for residents living on Brent Council estates.

•   Currently under the existing arrangement with Wing there is no enforcement that takes place, whilst the signage and presences of Wing Parking officers does act as a deterrent, the effectiveness is limited and has resulted in continued complaints from residents affected by unauthorised parking on estate. The new arrangement will be managed by the Councils contractor Serco and deliver effective enforcement on estates and tackle abandoned vehicles and anti-social behaviour linked to non-residents vehicles on estates.

•   An example of the consultation leaflet sent to each of the residents accompanies this briefing (see appendix 1) and the contractors carrying out the consultation are called the Project Centre (link to FAQs is prepared by The Project Centre) https://consultprojectcentre.co.uk/brenthousingestateparking/widgets/18431/faqs).

•   This leaflet outlines the position on visitors, as implementation must firstly prioritise residents living on the estate. This means visitors in the short term will not be able to park on the estate but it will be reviewed once the scheme is live and availability can be reassessed.

•   Through discussions with Wing Parking, it is apparent that the legislation has affected their financial viability for the type of contract with Brent Housing Management. Brent Housing Management currently subsidises that lack of income generated through penalty charges. Wing Parking have also confirmed that due to further upcoming Government changes current schemes would become inoperable. If residents choose not to go ahead with the new parking controls on their estate it is not possible to continue offering Wing Parking as an alternative.

 Through the consultation, residents do have an opportunity to influence whether and how the traffic management order is applied. Statutory stakeholders such as the emergency services also have an opportunity to comment. We encourage ward members to submit their views via the following link Project: Brent Housing Estates (pclengagement-hub.co.uk).

Communications going forward

•   All Councillors will be notified of the outcome of the consultation for each estate within their Ward prior to any communication going out to residents. Should Councillors wish to attend, the dates of face to face meetings with residents are available Project: Brent Housing Estates (pclengagement- hub.co.uk)

•   Questions can be sent directly to Estate.Parking@brent.gov.uk this applies to both residents and Councillors. 

•  

  Note: Some council homes have been left off the list Brent Council published (see previous post) These include Gauntlett Court, Summers Close and Saltcroft Close.
  

Brent Housing Management challenged at Scrutiny

A presentation from Harlesden Area Action put Brent housing chiefs on the spot at yesterday's Community and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee meeting when the Council was accused of not fulfilling their responsibilities as owners of the Freehold at two properties.

They were told that the example  above was one of many in Harlesden and Kensal Green where Brent was not fulfilling its responsibility to 'keep in repair and proper working order the structure and exterior of residential properties it owns'.

The property with accumulated waste and evidence of rat infestation, was reported in August 2019 but the issue not resolved until January 17th this year.  This meant that Brent Council was not adhering to the duty cited in the Brent Housing Report that 'landlords are responsible to ensure premises are not in a state to be prejudicial to health or nuisance'.

Responding Cllr Southwood, lead member for Housing and Benefits, admitted that the Council needed to be more proactive. They were reliant to issues such as this being flagged up by councillors as a result of residents' complaints, as well as input from Veolia and Streetcare. Improvements were needed in future.

Presenting the Performance Report on Brent Housing Management Cllr Southwood focused on improvements since BHP was brought back in-house in 2017 and Wettons brought in-house later.

There had been an improvement in the speed of repairs and residents' satisfaction with them but more work needed to be done by closer monitoring of Wates, particularly on complex repairs (those that needed more than one trade). The Council hoped that its current review with Wates would result in an an improvement. Wates had been honest about shortcomings enabling things to move forward. There seemed little prospect of this service being brought back in-house.

The Council were introducing a mobile phone App which would enable residents to report repairs 24/7.  Customer satisfaction with routine repairs was currently 83% (72% in last full period of the Brent Housing Partnership) and the Council's aim was to increase this to 90%. Some members of the Committee suggested the target should be 100%.

A puzzling finding was that there was no correlation between 'customer satisfaction'  and  the amount invested in council housing maintenance and refurbishment.

The Committee discussed the importance of hearing residents' voices as part of the Asset Management Strategy.  A 'Customer Panel' had been formed. It was not elected but appointed from volunteers in order to cover a range of tenancies and experience.  They challenged performance and would be involved in considering any changes of policy.  Housing Management were going to suggest that panel members follow a repair through from hearing the initial phone call, going out on the job with Wates, and seeing the repair to completion.

Changes were proposed in broadening the customer survey with a wider range of possible responses and asking tenants and leaseholders how they feel about the service itself.

Councillors questioned progress on Fire Risk Assessments with personal Emergency Action Plans (PEEPs).  The Committee asked for a report back on the 12 week programme that is about to commence to identify needs and review any changes required in the blocks.

Brent's Council estate cleaning to be brought in-house

Officers are recommending that Brent Council brings the cleaning contract for its council estates, currently held by Wettons, in-house.  The contract covers the cleaning of communal areas in purpose built flats, windows and hard-standing areas. Veolia cut the grass and maintain (chainsaw) shrubbery.

 

Veolia's handiwork

The report to Cabinet outlines feedback from an analysis of complaints to Wettons and Brent Housing Management that includes a slow response to cleaning issues associated with environmental anti-social behaviour such as removal of litter from communal areas, lack of compliance with the cleaning visits schedule and over-spilling of residual waste in surrounding bin areas,

The GMB union is currently in dispute with Wettons despite winning a minimum wage legal claim in Autumn 2018:

Employees at Wettons, are to finally receive the minimum wage after a legal claim supported by their union the GMB. The union announced the victory on their website:

GMB were made aware, by their members, that Wettons Cleaning Services Limited, who hold the contract for cleaning on housing estates, from Brent Council, were using their London Weighting Allowance, in calculating the minimum wage. Recent Employment Tribunal cases make this practice illegal.

When originally challenged on this Wettons refused to budge, but when the GMB solicitors started proceedings at the County Court and Employment Tribunal, Wettons finally backed down and agreed to settle the three test cases brought by the union. Following this, Wettons have now agreed to settle all outstanding claims for the rest of the workforce and they will be receiving back payment of up to six years this month.

Despite Brent Council being a registered London Living Wage employer (as defined by the Living Wage Foundation), and one of the first to develop a scheme promoting all businesses in the borough becoming Living Wage employers, the cleaning company chosen as their contracted partners were found to not be paying even the minimum wage themselves.
Despite this victory the GMB remain in dispute with Wettons who have refused to enter into discussions on a reasonable pay claim submitted by the union for nearly six months.

The union called on Brent Council to either put pressure on Wettons to comply with Brent's London Living Wage policy or bring the cleaning service in-house.

There are two options before the Council 1) in-sourcing 2) going out to competitive re-tendering. Both would requite payment of the London Living Wage. Option1 would set pay at Scale 4 of the GLPC pay scheme.


The report criticise the procurement process undertaken by Brent Housing Partnership, the arms length organisation that previously managed Brent council housing:

A review of the service, which is discussed later in this report, has uncovered that the procurement did not appear to have fully taken residents’ needs into consideration, as the specified standard of service and their inspections are not fit for purpose. It appears that the procurement was focused on reducing costs to residents without fully engaging them to understand their needs and adequately taking into account their expectations about the quality of service. This has led to a misalignment between residents’ expectations of the service and the cleaning specification Wettons are contracted to deliver. 


In addition, the contract was not well managed under BHP and there was insufficient investment made to the service by Wettons, which led to a deterioration in the quality of service. This manifested itself through high levels of complaints from residents, members’ enquiries and high numbers of corrective actions identified by the estate services team. Improving the estate cleaning service therefore became a key improvement priority when the Housing Management Service came back in-house. 

The report notes: 

The operational interface between Wettons and Veolia have also played a major role in poor service delivery. This is driven largely by lack of collective ownership by both contractors for the delivery of the overall estate standards. In addition, poor communication in agreed responsive solutions to the operational issues such as the handling of fly-tipping/bulk items, missed refuse collections and management of refuse bins were identified as key challenges during the review.

 The current contract is worth almost £2m annually and officers estimate that Option 1 would add costs of £0.8m. It is fully funded from service charges paid by tenants and lease holders. Officers envisage future savings on the contract  as a result of integration with other council services,  the removal of the profit requirement of out-sourcing, a better motivated workforce with more direct control by the Council and other 'efficiencies'.

I imagine if these factors  do not reduce costs there may be increases in service charges, albeit for a better service. Krissy O'Hagan, GMB London  Region organiser, told gWembley Matters, 'GMB Trade Union welcomes Brent Council's decision to discuss bringin this service back in-house and we hope that the council make the right decision and that the service is returned to Brent Council.'

Is this Brent's biggest fly-tip?

A quiet cul-de-sac in Wembley had this builder's rubble dumped this morning. Nobody has come forward as yet who witnessed the actual dumping but a large full  tipper truck was seen turning in Saltcroft Close and heading back towards the dump site at the junction of Summers Close and Pilgrims Way.  The tipping would have made a considerable noise.

Brent Council has said that clearing the rubble is the responsibility of Brent Housing Management as it falls within the boundary of the council estate on Pilgrims Way.

The word 'fly-tip' does not seem adequate to describe this small mountain of concrete that will take considerable work to clear.

Scrutiny over-ruled on Housing Management decision

In an unusual move Brent Council officers have ruled that a decision must be made by Cabinet on the controversial proposals for the future of Brent Housing Management LINK despite the proposals not being included in the Council's Forward Plan and the subsequent recommendations of Scrutiny Committee.

This is a copy of the Notice to the Chair of Scrutiny (Community and Wellbeing):