Speaking Up For Libraries today

I filled in at the last minute as a Green Party speaker at the Speak Up for Libraries Conference in Bloomsbury today. It was inspiring to see so many people passionately committed to the survival of libraries in the teeth of local council cuts, privatisation and volunteer solutions. Barnet library campaigners were there who have a particularly hard job on their hands. LINK

I made the link between developments in libraries, education and health - all public assets being handed over to the private sector for profit.

I quoted the Green Party core value that should be the basis of  our libraries policy as well as our other polices:

The success of a society cannot be measured by narrow economic indicators, but should take account of factors affecting the quality of life for all people: personal freedom, social equity, health, happiness and human fulfilment.

I went on to  support locally accessible, professionally staffed, adequately funded, democratically accountable local libraries.

I stressed their importance as shared public spaces contributing to social cohesion in addition to their primary role.

The other people on the panel were  Helen Goodman MP (Labour, Shadow Minister for Culture, Media and Sport) and Justin Tomlinson MP (Conservative). Liberal Democrats were invited but did not send a speaker. Author and library campaigner Alan Gibbons chaired the panel.

There was a discussion about the need for clearer national standards for library provision but delegates pointed out that these were not being enforced by the current Secretary of State despite Lincolnshire campaigners win in the High Court LINK.

I said that I had no faith in Ed Vaizey intervening in the Barnet case as that council was the Tory flagship after Hammersmith went Labour at the local elections.  He would hardly interfere with a council that was the pathbreaker for other Tory councils wanting to shed services. I suggested that there was no substitute for a mass national campaign in defence of libraries.

Non-intervention reflected underlying assumptions about the library service and contrasts with Michael Gove's many interventions in education.

On national standards I agreed that broad standards were important but how they were implemented was a matter for local decision making. However, they would mean nothing if there was not adequate funding for local government and at present there were indications that many council may fail financially and be unable to deliver even core services.

This is how Speak Up for Libraries told the story of the panel on Storify:
(first slide should be 'professionally staffed')

Miss Ledden takes over from Miss Marple as she investigates Lorber's leak

Fiona Ledden, currently under pressure from Christine Gilbert and Cara Davani as they take action on the senior management restructuring in the run up to the Christmas break, has in turn, attempted (or been instructed)  to put the heat on ex Liberal Democrat Council Leader, Paul Lorber.

Ledden has written to him about an investigation she is undertaking into information 'of a sensitive nature' which appeared in a letter from Paul Lorber published in the Brent and Kilburn Times on November 8th.

The letter was about the senior management restructuring which did not go to General Purposes Committee until November 5th.

Ledden said:

In the letter...you refer to the disbanding of the Environment department. This was confidential information  and staff in the department were not aware, no consultation documentation could be available until after the meeting of General Purposes Committee.

She went on to say:

I am very concerned that this information was available to you and I an writing formally to ask you who gave you that information.

Ledden went on to offer to have a meeting with Lorber 'if that would assist'.

Ledden does not cite any authority for making such a request of someone who is now a member of the public.

Lorber replied that he was sorry that she had been asked to waste her time on the matter and wrote:

I expect that the Labour Leader must have been furious at the disclosure of his secret hatchet plan. Secret even from his own Councillors and even the newly appointed Lead Member of Environment.

He went on to say that 'in the spirit of Open Government' he would be happy to answer the question:

I worked it out for myself from the headlines of the report. My many years on the Council and my intuition led me to guess which Department was for the chop and which Lead Member was the weakest and therefore least likely to cause a fuss.

Perhaps you would now reciprocate by forwarding a copy of the General Purposes Report so that it can be properly scrutinised and debated.

Ex Executive member Cllr George Crane was appointed successor to Cllr Keith Perrin on October 21st. Perrin had  the previous month resigned for 'personal reasons'. The appointment made by Muhammed Butt and not by ballot of the Labour Group was first announced on the Wembley Observer's  Get West London website.

Wembley Matters published the outline Agenda item for the General Purposes Committee on October 30th LINK and the anonymous officers' report on Saturday November 8th LINK  which identified plans to delete Fiona Ledden's post as Director of Legal and Procurement along with the post of Assistant Chief Executive which has only been created a year or so before.  Some information was still withheld as the Council claimed details about individual staff could be identified.

Tune in to Stonebridge kids fighting for their Adventure Playground Sunday 8-10pm 95.4FM

Stonebridge kids fighting to save the Stonebridge Adventure Playground will appear on Roots FM 95.4 on Sunday night.

They will be on the Gussy Roots show from 8-10pm.

Meanwhile follow this link to see some of the amazing  comments made in support of the Adventure Playground on their website: LINK

Brent Cabinet finding it hard to find cuts to bridge £54m budget gap

See last paragraph

According to a posting on the Brent Fightback Facebook page Muhammed Butt told Brent Central Labour Party members last night that Brent Council would have to make cuts of £54 million 2015-17 (2 year budget) that is equivalent to 20% of the revenue budget.

Every Cabinet member had been asked to find deep cuts - and they were struggling. The Labour Group will meet to discuss the recommended cuts on Saturday November 29th.

Butt told the meeting that he would ensure that new housing in Park Royal will have 50% affordable housing.  However members were disappointed that his definition of affordable rent was 80% of market rent - far too expensive for most ordinary Brent families.  He was asked to go back to officers and challenge this.

I understand that the issue of Stonebridge Adventure Playground was raised by members unhappy about recent developments over its proposed closure. LINK Muhammed Butt told them that a decision would be made in January.

Other sources suggest that the problem regarding the possible barring of three councillors under the 6 month non-attendance rule may be resolved next week.  LINK  Cllr John Duffy is due to attend Alcohol and Licensing Committee on Monday afternoon and Cllr Zaffar Van Kalwala Audit in the evening. 

Cllr  Ahmad Shahzad  has been unwell so may be exempted on those grounds.

The problem was caused by the sudden movement of the Full Council Meeting from 17th November to December 8th. This was explained as necessary in order to discuss the Brent Plan which is currently being consulted on. Many feel this an indequate excuse as the Council calendar, including consultations, is set up months in advance.

Apparently last night Cllr Janice Long mystified many Labour Party members by asking Muhammed Butt, rather cryptically, if he was planning to set off the Civic Centre fire alarm.

Brent Council denies restructuring information to ex-Leader - he issues formal Open Government complaint

As  readers will know Christine Gilbert and Cara Davani have proposed a restructuring of senior management of Brent Council  that some have seemed as part of a 'jobs for the boys and girls' strategy. Details can be found here: LINK

The details were to be discussed at the General Purposes Committee but no details were published on the Agenda. It was marked restricted as individuals could be identified before consultation began. One person who may be affected is Fiona Ledden, Director of Legal and Procurement, as it was proposed that her post be deleted.

At the meeting the item was taken 'below the line' (confidential) and a backbench Labour councillor was none too happy at being excluded from the room.

Now the issue has been taken up by Paul Lorber, former leader of the Liberal Democrats and previously Leader of the Council.

He pressed the case for open government in an exchange with Fiona Ledden:

To: Ledden, Fiona
Cc: Gilbert, Christine Subject: GP Report on Restructuring etc

Fiona  

Can you please supply me with a copy of this Report as I believe that aspects of it should NOT have been kept secret .

Brent supports the concept if a Freedom Of Information and Reports dealing with the abolition of Departments and posts themselves have not in the past been treated as confidential.

Only matters which are confidential are issues specific to individual employees.

The normal practice in the past has been a Report above the line dealing with the general issues and only the specific staff related issues should be kept below the line .

Can you please explain who made the decision to restrict all the information to just the Members of the GP Committee and why were other Councillors excluded from Meeting and prevented from being present during consideration of the items.

How does any of this meet the acceptable Freedom of Information undertakings? Has there been a decision to raise the Secrecy threshold under the current Administration?

I would appreciate an early reply.
Thanks
 Paul

 Dear Paul,

The report was below the line and will always remain below the line I can not therefore provide you with a copy.

The consideration of whether the report should go below the line took into account the relevant information.

Kind regards

Fiona
Fiona Ledden 
Director of Legal and Procurement

 Fiona

Sorry but this is not an acceptable answer. What 'consideration' - absolute secrecy to hide what officers recommend even if breach of Open Government undertakings?

On what basis were Councillors expelled from the meeting of the GP and thus denied an opportunity to Scrutinise. Are you using GP Committee to by pass information and decision making of full Council or even the Cabinet?

This is clearly an abuse and not what was expected of the Cabinet and Scrutiny System. Perhaps you and your colleagues need to review both the legislation and Brent Council policy on Open Government and act accordingly.

Please advise how this decision can be scrutinised if access to the papers is denied to Councillors let alone the public.

Please treat my email as a formal Complaint against a refusal to provide me with information I am entitled to as a local resident and Council Tax payer.

Regards
Paul

Support every child's right to go to school - sign today

A message from Education International


Today marks the 25th Anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child - a defining moment in history, when for the first time, all children around the world were viewed as human beings with their own set of rights, including the right to a quality education.

Despite progress over the past 25 years there are 58 million children out of school and we are seeing increasing attacks on schools and school children and teachers on the frontlines of education.
This was also one of the main reasons why Education International’s affiliates came together for the Unite for Quality Education campaign over the last year: We believe passionately that all children and teachers have the right to go to school without danger or discrimination and so we are actively supporting a new global call to action –the #UpForSchool petition.

World leaders promised to get every child into school by 2015. We now have a window of opportunity to put the pressure on them to keep their promises, making 2015 the year all children secured the right to go to school and learn.

People power works. Big numbers of people mobilising over an issue cannot be ignored. That is why this petition is being collected in every country around the world.

And we need teachers to be pivotal in this movement. To make this the world's biggest petition, we are asking you to collect as many signatures as possible. Can you help? To sign follow this LINK

We are organising a high-level hand-in of signatures during our World Congress in Ottawa in July 2015 so we hope we can do something historic together!

Please help spread the word and share this message as widely as possible across your networks. Together we can make the voices of teachers heard by world leaders.
Together we can make our voices heard and stand Up For School.
 
Susan Hopgood
President
Fred van Leeuwen
General Secretary
Education International

Caroline Lucas & Davy Jones condemn Green councillors' privatisation decision

The political decisions of the minority Green Council in Brighton and Hove have been controversial , locally and nationally, within the Green Party and within the broader left movement. At the crux of the argument has been the degree to which the Council should go along with the austerity agenda and implement cuts and costs savings, claiming that 'Green cuts' would be more progressive than those made by the other parties. At the same time the Council has also made considerable progress on the Green agenda. (See article on New Statesman website LINK)

A decision made at by some Green councillors at a Council committee last night has brought out the differences between the Council leadership's perspective and that of the city's Green MP and prospective MP.

Caroline Lucas MP, (Green Brighton and Hove) and Davy Jones (Green candidate for Brighton Kempton) have issued the following statement:

We are disappointed that at yesterday's Brighton & Hove Council Policy & Resources Committee meeting some Green Group councillors including the Council leader Jason Kitcat, voted to accept a Health & Well-Being Board recommendation to out-source a local NHS service (ICES) to provide specialist equipment for people with disabilities to a private sector provider.

It is a complicated situation - the Sussex Community NHS Trust was threatening to pull out of the service, "cost shunting" the responsibility over to the cash-strapped local Council that only provides a small component of the service currently. This is deeply regrettable. But we believe the Council has made a mistake in allowing itself to be forced by the NHS Trust to out-source this service to a private sector provider.

There was no necessity to make this decision earlier today – the existing contract runs until September 2015, leaving plenty of time to seek alternative solutions to keep the service in public hands.

We are particularly disappointed in today’s decision as it is not one that is in line with national or local Green Party policy, that unreservedly opposes the privatisation of NHS services. Neither was the ICES decision brought before the local Green Group or Green Party in advance for discussion. The Green Party councillors on the Council recently successfully proposed a motion to the full Council meeting opposing privatisation of NHS services.

We reiterate our outright opposition to the out-sourcing of the ICES service and to support the staff in the NHS in their campaigns to remain in the public sector, and NHS campaigners fighting against privatisation.

More feeble excuses from Cllr Butt as 'error' reveals his deceit on Stonebridge Adventure Playground closure

Cllr  Muhammed Butt today told the Kilburn Times that the Forward Plan notice uploaded on the Brent Council website  that the Cabinet would be making a decision to end the funding of the Stonebridge Adventure Playground  LINK had been 'uploaded in error'.  It is reminiscent of the Tweet sent out inviting residents to speak at a Full Council meeting on a Friday, giving Monday as the deadline which was said to be an error when I applied to speak on the subject of the appointment of a permanent Chief Executive LINK

This is what Cllr Butt told the Kilburn Tines: LINK

The forward plan item considering the future funding of the Brent Play Association was taken down from our website as it was an incorrect version which had been uploaded in error. A correct version will be published later today. (Tuesday).

It is important to note that this funding issue is completely separate from the regeneration proposals for Stonebridge. They are two separate decisions.

Given the fact that by 2018 Brent Council will have had its funding cut in half by government, we are having to review all expenditure across a wide range of areas including children’s services.

But let me be absolutely clear about this, no decisions on either the funding of the Brent Play Association or on the regeneration of Stonebridge have yet been made.

The new version of the item has been posted and a screen grab is below:

The Heading (below the purple line) was originally published as:

To terminate the funding to Brent Play Association (BPA) at the end of the 2014-15 financial year.

Decision type: Key

Reason Key: Significant expenditure/savings > 30% of budget for the function in question;

Importantly the 'Decision due' date is now the Cabinet of  January 26th 2015 rather than the original posting of  December 15th 2014.

Whether this is to avoid a headline of 'Brent Council give Stonebridge children a surprise Christmas present - they close their playground!' or some other reason is a matter for speculation.

My hunch is that the original wording of the Forward Plan reflects the Council's true intentions and that Muhammed Butt is fully aware that this is the case.

That local residents, and the children who use the Centre, are being subject to such deceit  is a disgrace.