Veolia withdraws from lucrative North london waste contract

Veolia's contract with Brent Council for waste collection, recycling and street cleansing comes to an end in 2014 and the procurement process for a new contractor has begun for a new contract which will also include parks maintenance.

Today (21 December) the North London Waste Authority announced that Veolia Environmental Services‘ will not be submitting final tenders for either NLWA’s waste services or fuel use contracts’.
http://www.nlwa.gov.uk/news/2012/2012/12/21/announcement-on-nlwa-procurement

Sarah Colborne, Director of Palestine Solidarity Campaign, said:

Veolia’s bid for this waste contract which covers a vast area of North London was deeply controversial, with local residents outraged that such a toxic company could potentially provide services to them. Veolia is complicit in Israeli violations of international law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Veolia operates bus services to illegal Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land, is involved with the Jerusalem Light Railway which was designed to serve the needs of Israeli settlers,and Tovlan landfill which operates in the Jordan Valley.

This decision comes after a recent report by Professor Richard Falk – the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories – in which Veolia was singled out for its activities in the Occupied Palestinian  Territories and after Palestine Solidarity Campaign members in the area have been actively campaigning against Veolia’s bid.

Butt's lamentations will change nothing

Nearly Christmas and we now know that Brent Council will lose more funding next year. Muhammed Butt, leader of the council has issued more lamentations and condemnations but we need more than that.  There is still no word on whether his council will devise a needs based budget to rally a community campaign against the cuts, how the council will consult residents on the budget, and at what point they will refuse to make a budget that they know will bring more deprivation to the people of Brent.

From Cllr James Denselow's blog:

Councils in England will have their spending power cut by 1.7% next year, the local government secretary, Eric Pickles, has announced.

The shadow communities and local government secretary, Hilary Benn, said: “It is clear that he is living in a world of his own, because he simply does not understand the impact that his decisions on funding are having on the services and local people who use and rely upon them.”

Cllr. Muhammed Butt, the Leader of Brent Council said “this looks like another disastrous settlement for local authorities. I spent the weekend helping out at the Brent food bank – helping people who literally can’t afford to eat. Make no mistake, Eric Pickles announcement today will mean they have to help thousands more people in Brent alone in 2013. It is a direct attack on the poorest residents of our community, and it is shameful.”

As the year ends insiders tell me that Butt's position as leader is far from secure with critics both in the Executive itself and in the  wider group of Labour councillors, with former leader Ann John returning to a more active role.

Join in carols with library campaigners

Tireless campaigners continue to keep the libraries issue live over the Christmas period with a number of events.

Climate Change - Deadlier than the Deficit

On a wet and windy Westminster night a banner was briefly unfurled yesterday outside Parliament reading 'CLIMATE CHANGE - DEADLIER THAN THE DEFICIT'. We were demonstrating against the Energy Bill which despite Coalition PR gives the go-ahead for nuclear and fracking and does nothing to support green solutions to the energy and climate change crisis.

John McDonnell MP addressed the demonstrators from various campaigning groups and I spoke as a member of the Green Party and Campaign Against Climate Change on the need for a restructuring of the economy and a defence of the welfare state.. The recently formed Campaign Against Fuel Poverty made the connection between fuel poverty and child poverty.

French to storm Brent Town Hall?

Following my earlier posting on the mysterious bidder for Brent Town Hall I have received the following information.  It seems to make as much sense as any of the other rumours and we know that the French population of London is rising and Wembley Park has good communication links:

There are rumours that it might have been purchased by the French to open  a French secondary school just for their French children to carry on with  their French education over here in the UK. 

The French have a few French schools  in Central London but can no longer accommodate the growing demand for the

Certainly Brent Town Hall features in a document from the French Embassy on school places provision issued by the French Embassy in July. It appears to be among several possible sites in the suburbs  with a site in Queens Park also named.  All share the disadvantage that French parents are unlikely to want to see their children commute out of Central London. See section III

Legal action against 'unfair' disability tests

From False Economy website:

 This is a joint post from Patrick Lynch, Disabled People Against Cuts, Public Interest Lawyers and False Economy. An article about this legal action appeared in the Guardian :

A disabled man who was wrongly found fit for work under the government’s disability benefit assessment scheme is launching legal action to try and stop more disabled people being wrongly kicked off the social safety net.

Patrick Lynch, a former social care worker who was forced to quit work because of his impairments, is seeking a judicial review of the controversial disability benefit assessment scheme run by Atos.

The Work Capability Assessment (WCA), which determines eligibility for Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) for people whose health or impairment stops them from working, is at present hugely unreliable, with many people wrongly found fit for work despite severely debilitating and in some cases life-threatening conditions.

The legal action is seeking a ruling that would require Atos, the private firm that runs the WCA process on behalf of the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), to grant all ESA claimants the unequivocal right to have their assessment recorded and to receive their WCA report before a decision on their eligibility is made – both key safeguards against people’s health conditions being misreported or ignored altogether.

DWP research and a survey conducted by Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) both show widespread demand from claimants to have their WCA assessments recorded, to ensure their medical conditions are not misrepresented in order to wrongly strip them of benefits. But while the DWP granted the right to request a recording earlier this year, there are considerable bureaucratic obstacles to both securing a recording and then using it in an appeal, with Atos recently introducing a restrictive ‘consent form’ for those wanting a recording of their assessment.

The case is being brought by Public Interest Lawyers, and draws on research by Disabled People Against Cuts and the TUC-backed campaign group False Economy.

Mr Lynch wants the DWP and Atos to adopt the following safeguards:

a) Universal recording to ensure that all claimants undergoing a WCA or an assessment under the new PIP benefit system will have the right to have their assessment recorded;
b) Claimants will get a copy of the WCA report before a decision is made on their eligibility for ESA, and will have the chance to raise any concerns with the DWP decision maker;
c) The DWP/Atos will be responsible for obtaining medical evidence from the medical professional named by the claimant;
d) The DWP ensures that all assessment centres are fully accessible.

Taken together, these measures would address some of the inaccuracy inherent in the disability benefits system. Disability campaigners have raised repeated concerns over how the WCA process causes huge stress for ESA recipients, with many disabled people’s lives ruined after wrongly having their benefits removed.

Mr Lynch, now a campaigner with DPAC, was found fit for work following a flawed WCA report in 2010, before the DWP reconsidered and reversed the decision. His most recent WCA this year upheld his benefit entitlement, but even then Atos’ report of his assessment contained inaccuracies.

In bringing the action Mr Lynch notes

“Disabled people and the poor in this country have always struggled to get what they are duly entitled to. The fight must go on to address the injustice caused by this out of touch Government.”

A DPAC spokesperson said:

“The evidence is clear – more than 98 percent of those responding to our survey said they wanted their assessment recorded and that they believed it would provide a better account. However, many reported a whole host of barriers in getting a recording in place.”

A spokesperson for False Economy, whose investigations into WCA recordings informed some of the background to the recording debate, said that the rights of ESA claimants are crucial.

“Too many people feel vulnerable in this process. People feel that their final assessment reports inaccurately reflect information exchanged during work capability assessments. We've found it hard to pin down the DWP on recording policy. Universal recording, and giving people the opportunity to see their WCA reports before final eligibility decisions are made, will go some way towards restoring fairness and accuracy while the WCA process continues.”

Tessa Gregory of Public Interest Lawyers, Mr Lynch’s solicitor states:

“The Work Capability Assessment process needs urgent reform. There is an unacceptable risk of unfairness in the current system and we hope these safeguards will be instituted to help mitigate that risk.”

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said:

“Assessments of disability must be fair and proportionate, treat people with respect and be part of a consistent system. There is overwhelming evidence that they have fallen far short of these basic standards. It is right that they should be challenged in court.”

More funding needed to pay London nursery workers a proper wage

 The following statement has been released by London Councils, the body representing 33 local authorities in London:

Pressures on London’s childcare system mean that almost 25,000 extra nursery places are necessary to meet a headline pledge by the Deputy Prime Minister, new research shows.

London Councils, the body which represents the capital’s 33 local authorities, commissioned Daycare Trust, a national charity which campaigns for affordable childcare, to look at how to make the entitlement for free part-time early years education for the poorest 20 per cent of two-year olds work in the capital.

The research reveals that a minimum of 24,100 new places are needed to meet the pledge. This will rise further to 31,700 places by September 2014.

Factors adversely affecting the capital, including higher levels of poverty, rising birth rates, migration and higher staff and property costs, mean that the costs of delivering the scheme will be significantly higher than elsewhere in the UK.

To meet this challenge, the report outlines how a number of boroughs are taking innovative approaches to deliver the offer. This includes augmenting early years education with home learning and parental support. This eases pressure on childcare providers and provides targeted and integrated support to deprived families. 

The report makes a number of recommendations to government about how best to make the programme work. As well as supporting combining early years education with targeted parental support, the government should provide sufficient funding to London Boroughs to allow providers to be paid £8 per hour. Based on government allocations, providers will receive a significantly lower average of £5.71 per hour if all revenue funding goes to providers.
Mayor Jules Pipe, Chair of London Councils, said:

“Today’s research shows that councils are thinking innovatively about how to create the places needed to deliver this new entitlement. However, London has more births, more poverty and more expensive childcare costs than elsewhere in the UK. The government needs to take this into account.”
Anand Shukla, Chief Executive of Daycare Trust, said:

“This policy has the potential to boost the life chances of the most deprived children in London but finding an additional 25,000 early education places for two year olds is proving a huge challenge for local authorities. A shortfall in day-to-day funding, for providers and for local authorities, risks compromising this ambitious policy. A small amount of extra funding would get the buy-in of providers and the essential local authority infrastructure needed to make this scheme a success.”

Evening Standard report on hungry children reinforces need for free school meals for all

Following on from my posting earlier this month accusing the Coalition of knowingly increasing child poverty LINK and reporting being accosted by a hungry child in a local school. the Evening Standard has published this story: LINK:

Thousands of London children are going to school hungry because their parents are too poor to afford breakfast.

A harrowing investigation reveals today that scores of children have even passed out in class due to lack of food.

Three quarters of teachers interviewed by the London Assembly in a snapshot survey said they had personally taken action to help hungry children. Of those who said they had “taken action” to feed pupils, 60 per cent said they provided food at their own expense.

Almost 20 per cent of those interviewed who regularly gave food to hungry children did so up to four times a month.

Fiona Twycross, who is leading the study, said:

It’s heart-breaking to think that children are going to school hungry. Some kids have told us there’s no food in the cupboard at home at all. The problem might be even more widespread than we think. There are probably thousands going hungry.

You can’t see a hungry child, you just see a child who is listless or a bit ratty and lacking concentration, so unless a teacher spots it and asks the right questions we just don’t know.

Thank goodness for caring teachers who pay for food for hungry pupils out of their own pockets – although it is scandalous that they have to in this day and age.  What worries me even more is what is happening during the school holidays when this extra help isn’t available.

The Assembly member added:

We’ve heard really devastating stories about pupils passing out. It’s a dramatic illustration of the problem and hopefully not very widespread but it does happen. Even if it’s just one child going hungry and we don’t do anything about it that’s a scandal.

More than 95 per cent of teachers interviewed said there were always a few pupils in their class were starting the day on an empty stomach.

Almost 20 per cent said as many as 15 pupils went without breakfast.

Half of the respondents from primary and secondary schools across the capital said the children went without because their parents could not afford it.

And almost all of the teachers interviewed - 97 per cent - said hunger impacted negatively on their pupils’ concentration in lessons.

The Assembly’s health committee, which publishes its full report in March, spoke to 164 head teachers and other staff across 21 different boroughs - including Lewisham, Lambeth and Tower Hamlets - to establish the scale and impact of hunger.

There are just over 2,000 primary and secondary schools in London educating around 1.25 million pupils so the scale of the problem is likely to be more widespread.

The study found there was a growing demand for food banks, breakfast clubs and free school meals as the economic downturn takes effect.

Investigators have uncovered harrowing tales. One teacher came across a child standing outside a cookery class sniffing the air as cakes were baked inside.

She described the scene as “like something out of a Dickens story” as the child had not eaten breakfast or lunch because he couldn’t afford the food.

It would be good if the Evening Standard took up the Green Party policy of free school meals for all children. It would end the bureaucracy  associated with applying for free school meals and ensure that, at least during term time, all children got a decent hot meal, impacting on health, behaviour and educational achievement. Many parents find applying for free school meals difficult and there are also families who do not qualify as their immigration status means they have 'no recourse to public funds'.