Why services are better in public hands - the need for a Public Service Users Bill

The We Own It campaign LINK  will launch their report on the need for a Public Service Users Bill on Monday. The Bill would promote and protect high quality and accountable public services.

They list the benefits of public ownership:

1. You use it

Meeting your needs – whether that's at the doctors' surgery or at the post office – should mean giving you time, attention and care. Public ownership makes it easier for staff to take the time that’s needed rather than squeezing services to boost profits. This means that when public services are in public hands, they tend to be better run. Local authorities across the UK are bringing services in-house to improve their quality and value for money.

2. You pay for it

Public services are something we all pay for, and we all use. Public ownership means your money is better spent, both locally and nationally. Money can be reinvested into services to improve them, instead of subsidising the profits of private companies. Savings are also made because services are integrated and there is no need to manage contracts. Publicly run East Coast rail has saved the taxpayer £600 million and if water was in public hands, household water bills would be around £80 a year cheaper.

3. You have a say in it 

When public services are run by local or national government, it's easier for you to know who to turn to when you want to complain, and to have your say in how you want services to be improved. The public sector must make data available to you and respond to Freedom Of Information requests (unlike the private sector). Public ownership also means it's possible for the whole of society to decide on a goal (for example, a long term energy policy) and achieve it efficiently. Most people want public services to be provided publicly and almost all of us want a say in how they are run.

4. You share it 

Public services are something we all share. When services are owned by all of us, it's easier for staff to work with service users and community groups to improve them. This can and should involve imaginative ways to keep making them better. In the 21st century, public services should be about people, not profit. Public ownership can sometimes involve the voluntary sector, social enterprises and cooperatives where that's the right solution, and where there are safeguards in place to protect public assets.

5. Examples all over the world show that it works better

In the UK, despite the current drive to privatise, many local authorities are bringing services in-house to boost satisfaction and save money. Across Europe, public ownership is making a comeback. For example, the water in Paris is now owned and controlled by the city, and in Germany energy is being generated locally by publicly owned utilities. In the US, a fifth of all previously outsourced services have been brought back in-house.

The Bill would ensure:

Public ownership would be the default for public services

1. Public ownership would be prioritised as the default option that is looked at first, before contracting out (supported by 60% of the public). Local and national government would always explore best practice public ownership, before turning to private companies.

2. There would always be a realistic, thorough in-house bid from the public sector whenever a public service – local or national - is put out to tender (supported by 80% of the public).

3. The public would be consulted before any service is privatised or outsourced (supported by 79% of the public).

4. Organisations with a social purpose – the public sector and genuine cooperatives, mutuals, charities and social enterprises – would be prioritised in the tendering process (supported by 57% of the public).

Private companies running public services would be held to account

1. The public would have a ‘right to recall’ private companies who are doing a bad job (supported by 88% of the public).

2. Private companies running public services would be transparent about their performance and financial data - as in the public sector (supported by 88% of the public).

3. Private companies running public services would be subject to Freedom Of Information legislation - as in the public sector (48% of the public mistakenly believe this is already the case).

4. The public would be properly consulted about the services they receive through public service contracts.

Competition for Brent young people to take part in Civic Centre opening performance

As regular  readers will know I have been a critic of the Brent Civic Centre since it was first planned, particularly on the grounds that it was too expensive and too grandiose at a time when the Council was closing half our libraries and other amenities and cutting jobs.

It is there now and I want to see it working for the people of Brent in the way County Hall and the Festival Hall worked at the time of Ken Livingstone's GLC adminstration: open to the public and groups and at the heart of the community.

I probably won't be able to stand the hype at the opening ceremony but here is what the Council is planning. It is a pity that this competition is advertised in the school holiday and closes before children return so the message is unlikely to get out as widely as it deserves:

The opening ceremony

We are celebrating the opening of the civic centre on 6 October 2013 with a grand spectacle of music, dance, arts and performance. Find out more

21 ambassadors for 21 wards

We are looking for young ambassadors to represent each of Brent's 21 wards at the opening ceremony.
The ambassadors will officially open the building with the Mayor and the Leader of the Council as well as feature in the spectacular finale.

How to enter

For a chance to win and play a central role in this historic event simply send your drawing/collage/ photograph or write a poem which illustrates:

"What you love about where you live!"

Please send your entry with your name, age, address and a contact number to competition@brent.gov.uk or post to: Competitions, Floor 4, Brent Civic Centre, Engineers Way, Wembley, HA9 0FJ.

You must be a Brent resident aged 7 to 16 years to enter the competition. Winners have to be available to attend the ceremony on 6 October 2013, as well as some dates during September for film/sound recordings related to the finale performance.

The closing date for entries is Friday 30 August.

For more information about Brent Civic Centre visit www.brent.gov.uk/civiccentre

Brent Council uses Brent Cyclists' ideas for Wembley 'mini-Holland' bid

 Brent Council made the following announcement today:

Brent Council is aiming to revolutionise cycling for residents by bidding for a share of £100 million funding from Transport for London (TfL) to create a 'mini-Holland' in Brent.

The first-stage bid titled Ways to Wembley sets out how the centre of the borough could be transformed into a 'mini-Holland' by overcoming physical barriers to cycling such as major roads and rail hubs as well as encouraging more communities to cycle and creating better cycling infrastructure.

TfL recently invited outer London boroughs to submit applications for their share of funding worth £100 million to create a 'mini-Holland' - so-called because it will create an area which is as bike friendly as any town in Holland. Ways to Wembley sets out ideas for a 'mini-Holland' linking the Wembley regeneration area and popular Wembley Stadium and Arena destinations to other parts of borough including areas of major regeneration such as Willesden and South Kilburn.

It also includes ideas for a cycle hub in Wembley, providing cyclists with cycle parking, facilities, cycling retailers and a travel information centre in together one location. The scheme would also help to link Brent to other areas across the rest of London via existing cycle routes.

Brent Council has worked in partnership with Brent Cyclists on the Ways to Wembley bid and incorporated many of the group's ideas.

Brent Council Leader and Cycling Champion Muhammed Butt said:

"I'm a huge supporter of cycling so I'm 100% committed to Brent winning this major funding opportunity. As Brent's Cycling Champion I've led initiatives to encourage and promote cycling, and to raise awareness of our fantastic bid I've attended meetings with the Mayor's Cycling Champion, Andrew Gilligan and TfL, and listened closely to the ideas of the local Brent Cyclists group.

"I recognise that at the moment there are too many physical barriers which make cycling in our borough difficult. That's why we've put forward some imaginative ideas about how we can ensure that road, rail and Tube links don't sever cycle routes. They also address how we can encourage people from every community to take up cycling so it genuinely becomes an activity for all.

"This is an excellent time to invest in cycling infrastructure in Brent with the ongoing regeneration of many parts of the borough and I hope we can realise the full potential of our bid."

Ways to Wembley, which is the first stage of Brent Council's bid for a mini-Holland, sets a target to increase cycling to 4.3 per cent of all journeys in Brent by 2026.

The first-stage shortlisting by TfL is expected to be announced in August and the chosen projects in September.

To see the full Ways to Wembley document, visit www.brent.gov.uk/cycling.

Organise for upcoming decision on Harlesden Incinerator

It's funny isn't it, how crucial decisions affecting the lives of local people are often made in the dead days of the summer school holidays? Following Barnet Council's go ahead for the controversial tower block city on the edges of the Welsh Harp, Ealing Council will decide on the equally controversial 'Harlesden Incinerator' on August 14th. DETAILS

The plans for yet another waste facility in an area which borders Brent but where the decision is made by a different local council (as with the Welsh Harp), has met widespread opposition, not just for the impact on air quality in an area devoid of any 'green breathing spaces' but also in terms of the numbers of heavy trucks that will come trundling through the local streets.

It appears likely that the intention is to rubber stamp plans which did not even figure in the options outlined in the grand West London Waste Authority plan.

There is a Harlesden Town meeting on Monday August 12th and perhaps that will be an organising opportunity for a vociferous Brent presence at the meeting on the 14th.

Study confirms poorest hit hardest by A&E closures

An Equality Impacts report commissioned by NHS managers into the closure of four West London Accident and Emergency facilities LINK has confirmed the fears of many campaigners. The report by consultants Mott MacDonald into the closures of A&Es at Ealing, Charing Cross. Hammersmith and Central Middlesex and the reconfiguration programme under the Shaping a Healthier Future proposals concluded:

• 33% of 'blue light' ambulances across the area will take longer to reach hospital
• Among those picking up patients from poorer areas, 41% will take longer
• The four A&Es proposed for closure are all in deprived parts of London
• Elderly, poorer and disabled people who need non-urgent care will be 'disproportionately' affected
• Seven in ten people travelling by bus or tube will have journey times of 30 minutes or more
• Travel times are a key concern and warnings need to be raised about the prospect of longer and more complext journey times
• Closure could affect 'continuity of care' particularly for children
• Well-developed services at Ealing hospital to help Southall's large South Asian population, which suffers high levels of poor health, would also be lost.

The report's authors believe no ambulances will take more than an extra 10 minutes to reach an A&E  after the closures but of course that could be an extremely crucial 10 minutes.

Dr Onkar Sahota, chair of the London Assembly health committee,told the Daily Mail LINK  that he thought their calculations were wrong:  'There is clear evidence that when travel times are increased, mortality rates go up'.

Malevolent Crosby's mendacity has to be challenged

Lynton Crosby's claim in the  Sunday Times that the 'racism van' campaign was 'flawed and backfired' LINK is a bit rich as he is widely seen as the strategist behind the 'Go Home' offensive as a way of out-flanking UKIP.

Crosby of course has form. Back in Australia he was behind John Howard's election campaigns the lowest point of which was Howard's claim that refugees were throwing their children out of boats in order to blackmail the Australian government.

Crosby's comment may mean that the 'racist vans' will be dropped but I expect that the 'Go Home' campaign will continue in other guises, particularly the raids at railway stations and bus stations, and raids on work premises.

This means that in Brent we will need to remain alert and mobilise at the first signs of any raids in the borough. Though often a critic of Muhammed Butt, I have to pay tribute to the way he has spoken out on this issue across many media outlets.  He has spoken for the whole of Brent in opposing these attempts to divide and rule and disrupt our community.

Meanwhile there are complaints about the Go Home van advertisements lodged with the Advertising Standards Agency (I had my acknowledgment yesterday) and the Equalities and Human Rights Commission inquiry into possible ethnic targeting.

Given Crosby's mendacity any resulting, seemingly negative,  publicity may well be part of his plan to portray the government as tough on immigration (and by implication race) and undermine UKIP and the EDL, just as Margaret Thatcher's policies led to a decline in support for the National Front in the 80s. Who needed the NF when Margaret Thatcher was saying the same thing?

This does not mean that we should not campaign .loud and clear, but it does mean that we should also challenge the Tory's underlying message.

Round 1 allotments victory: that's the way the Pickles squirt!

The Farm Terrace allotment campaign was celebrating this weekend after Eric Pickles was forced to admit his department had made a legal error when approving Watford town council's plans to build on the site. His department failed to explain why it had approved the decision despite the allotments still being in heavy demand.

The decision will now have to be reconsidered and although this may still eventually result in approval of the plans, the campaign to save the allotments is celebrating a 'Round 1' victory. Allotment holders had applied for a judicial review and raised more than £6,000 for a fighting fund through the GoFundMe LINK crwod funding site.

The news brought congratulatory messages from a wide spectrum of supporters with some hailing a victory for 'people power' and making connections with the Lewisham A&E Campaign and the campaign against the Bedroom Tax.

This is good news ahead of next week's National Allotments Week but a government report in 2011 revealed that 50,000 allotments had been lost in the previous 15 years.  Allotees will have to remain vigilant. Some councils have provided additional allotments in the face of growing demand recently and there have been schemes to provide temporary alloments on land awaiting development as well as in 'common areas' of  social housing estates. However pressures on sites will continue as developers seek new land for housing and retail development and hard-pressed councils look for a cash boost.

Brent Council recently advertised vacant plots at seven allotment sites but there are significant waiting lists at others.

Although I have not heard of any sites under threat currently, the new tenancy  agreement circulated to allotment tenants last week does include clauses giving Brent Council the right to terminate the tenancy at a minimum of 12 month's notice 'where the Council requires the Allotment for any purpose for which it was acquired by the Council...or has appropriated them to another purpose under any statutory provision, or if the Council requires the Allotment for building, mining or any other industrial purpose, or for roads or sewers necessary in connection with any of the aforementioned purposes...'

Pub Quiz fundraiser for Brent Housing Action on Monday