Budget Scrutiny Panel oppose bulky collection charge

The Budget Scrutiny Panel has asked the Council to think again about introducing payment for bulky waste collections.  The amount to be saved is relatively small at £250,000 and I suspect it may have been put in as one of those token items that the Council can revise after the budget consultation to show that it has 'listened' to residents.  But maybe I just have a suspicious mind.

The original proposal was very vague regarding the actual level of charges so it was hard to see how the sum of £250k had been arrived at. It appeared to be offering a faster premium service if residents were prepared to pay a charge:

The proposal is about introducing a differentiated charging scheme for the removal of bulky items, retaining some level of free service, so that:

·      operating costs are recovered 


·      a popular service can be sustained 


·      waste disposal volumes are better controlled 


·      demand is better regulated 


·      waiting times are reduced; and

·      monies received can be re-invested in the service 


How would this affect users of this service? 


Customers may notice altered operational arrangements and revised service terms and conditions. In some instances, service users would need to pay for the removal of bulky items or make alternative arrangements for disposal.

The Panel Report states:

The Panel had severe concerns about this proposal, primarily focused around the potential reputational damage to “Brand Brent” for what is a relatively small saving.

We understand that this proposal is designed to offer a “gold standard” option for people who wish to dispose of bulky waste items. In essence rather than wait the current standard period of time of around six weeks for a free collection they can pay to have the items removed sooner. However, as the policy is stated on the detailed options paper this is less than clear and could be interpreted as restricting the right of local people to have their bulky waste collected by the Council. This is a sensitive political area and we feel that when speaking about this subject the Council needs to be extra careful to get its messaging right so no misinformation gets into the public arena.

We are not confident that the Council has fully modelled the potential cost of an increased level of illegal rubbish dumping which may occur if people come to believe that they will have to pay new costs to have their bulky waste taken away. This could undermine the overall level of savings. 

Overall, the Panel felt that similar savings may be achievable by better sign posting people to other agencies who collect waste for free, including the growing number of furniture and electrical charity shops, or charities which provide furniture and white goods to people on low incomes.

This will not be a simple task. Council staff will have to be trained to give absolutely accurate information to ensure that residents do not become frustrated or feel they are being misinformed.

An example would be a local person ringing the Council to ask them to take away a sofa. The resident would be informed that they can wait up to 6 weeks for the Council to take it away, or call their local British Heart Foundation store who could take it away more quickly and for free. The Council operative would have to be sure from the call that it was an item of furniture the charity shop would take, and have the correct number for the shop as well as knowing the areas it collects from etc.

Similarly, Council departments would need to work together even more closely to ensure that products offered for collection to the environmental teams are passed to the benefits teams when people are in need of second hand goods for their homes.

We believe that this investment in time and training would be worthwhile as it would not only reduce the number of collections the Council needs to carry out but also reduce the amount of waste going into landfill which incurs a Landfill Tax charge to the Council. It would also have the wider social benefit of promoting re-use and recycling as first options in even more circumstances.

Fraud & error risk in Brent Planning Application process found by auditors

An internal audit report into Brent Council's planning application process by PriceWaterhouseCooper (PcW) has given only a 'Limited Assurance' rating and identified  high and medium risks of error or fraud. The report LINK which was submitted in November 2016 will be discussed at the Audit Committee on Wednesday January 11th 7pm at Brent Civic Centre.

In the last year there have been major staff changes in the Planning Department. Both planning and regeneration come under the Strategic Director for Regeneration and Environment.  Recently the lead member for Regeneration, Growth, Employment and Skills, which also covers planning policy,  Cllr Roxanne Mashari, resigned from the Cabinet earlier this month to be replaced by Cllr Shama Tatler.

The summary states: (my emphasis highlighted in yellow)

A new management team has been in place since May 2016 and there was evidence of some improvement being made to the system of controls within the planning application assessment process. However, our review did identify significant weaknesses in the planning application review and assessment process due to issues in the design of automated and user access controls with the system used to process planning applications, Acolaid. Issues identified around the system audit trail, user access rights and system enforced controls in place mean that the system is highly susceptible to manipulation and abuse through inappropriate or fraudulent activity and action should be taken immediately by management to strengthen the controls embedded within the system. We have included on page 4 a summary process map identifying the key weaknesses within the overall control system. 

Based on the findings identified by this review we are only able to give Limited Assurance over how the risks covered by this review are being mitigated. Key findings

•       The audit trail supporting the completion of key planning tasks is driven by the user selection from a drop down field that any user can amend rather than being automatically recorded based on the username within the system who has actually processed the task. The audit trail, including evidence of key approvals in the planning application process, may not accurately reflect who has actually performed the task and could be susceptible to manipulation to hide inappropriate activity. 


•       The system does not enforce segregation of duties between key parts of the planning process such as the initial assessment of the application by a Planning Officer and the subsequent approval by a Planning Manager. 


•       Roles and responsibilities are not fully aligned to access rights within the system. There are 9 levels of user access rights in the Acolaid system. Those responsible for granting/amending access rights were not able to define what access rights these user profiles permitted. 


•       Acolaid system user access rights have not been regularly reviewed by management. There are 739 user IDs listed on the Acolaid system. 429 (58%) users had not used the system since 30/3/2016 at the time of audit (01/08/2016) consisting of staff that have left the Council or who no longer require access to Acolaid. There is no effective mechanism in place to identify users who have left the Council or no longer require access to the system and withdraw access rights accordingly. 


•       There is no evidence an anti-bribery risk assessment has been completed for the Planning Department and anti-bribery awareness training has not been provided to planning staff. The Council may not be able to demonstrate that it has taken steps to prevent bribery resulting in non-compliance with the Bribery Act 2010 which could result in reputational damage and prosecution under this legislation. 


•       The Council officers a pre-application advice service in relation to prospective planning applicants. Advice issued should be subject to review in advance of being issued. 7/101 (7%) of pre-applications had been processed and reviewed by the same person. 


Given the  multi-million value of planning applications in Brent and the fact that for several years now, as pointed out on this blog, major decisions are delegated to the head of planning, this is an area of obvious concern.   As with any Audit Report an action plan has been devised for each area of concern but councillors will need  to step up their scrutiny of the internal working of their own department to ensure it is fit for purpose.

An immediate question that springs to mind is whether, historically, any fraud may have taken place or major errors made?  Are any investigations planned into past planning application decisions in the light of this report? 

The report states:

Planning Officers are bound by the Royal Town Planning Institute's Code of Conduct, which includes competence, honesty and integrity as key principles. However, this does not include any specific requirements regarding anti- bribery. We reviewed the Council's Anti-Fraud and Bribery Policy and found:

•   The Council has committed to maintain adequate and proportionate procedures to prevent bribery, undertake anti-bribery risk assessments and make all employees aware of their responsibilities to adhere strictly to this policy at all times; 


•   An anti-bribery risk assessment for the planning applications process and anti-bribery awareness training has not been provided to staff; 


•   A planning code of conduct is in place for members, however this does not include provisions relating to officers. We note that the code of conduct is currently being redrafted to include officers; and 
Planning Officers are required to flag any potential conflicts of interest in processing planning applications on an ad-hoc basis, but there is no requirement to make formal written declarations and a register of interests is not maintained.

These are the risk assessment findings:

HIGH RISK Approval of planning applications: System-audit trail and workflow

The Acolaid system does not accurately record the allocation and completion of work and the audit trail is susceptible to manipulation. In addition the system does not enforce segregation of duties for key parts of the process and system access rights do not reflect roles and responsibilities. As a result planning applications may be approved without the prerequisite review and approval in line with roles and responsibilities in place. This could result in planning applications being approved inappropriately due to fraud or error. 


HIGH RISK Acolaid System use access

System access rights do not reflect current roles and responsibilities. Individuals who do not require access to the system or have left the Council have access to the system and are able to make inappropriate changes to records and standing data due to fraud or error. 

MEDIUM RISK Anti-bribery arrangements

The Council is not able to demonstrate that it has taken steps to prevent bribery resulting in non-compliance with the Bribery Act 2010 which could result in reputational damage and prosecution. 
Inappropriate decisions are made regarding proposed planning applications due to bribery and undue influence. 


MEDIUM RISK Pre-application advice

Insufficient segregation of duties and independent review of pre-application advice may result in poor quality advice not being identified and resolved or inappropriate advice being issued based on the scope of services that can be provided at the pre-application stage. 


MEDIUM RISK Management Information Control design

There is insufficient performance information available to management to facilitate effective oversight of operational performance. Operational issues are not identified and resolved in a timely manner.

Greens expose unviability of London Mayor's 'viability team' on affordable housing

Sian Berry London Green Party Assembly Member has revealed that the London Mayor’s new ‘team of viability experts’ will consist of only two people, which is not enough to challenge the huge resources of developers.

The new team will be based in City Hall and will examine figures submitted by developers when they fail to meet the Mayor’s targets for affordable homes.

However, in response to a written question from Sian Berry, the Mayor has said the ‘team’ will be made up of just two people.

He also failed to give reassurances that they would be permanent staff and not on short term contracts that allow them to move back and forth between public and commercial work that could bring conflicts of interest.

Sian Berry said:

The Mayor promised a team of experts and Londoners need more than two people in these posts if the Mayor’s goal of challenging developers is to be viable. I am very concerned that two people, however talented, will be stretched beyond capacity and unable to make a real difference.

There’s already too much of a ‘revolving door’ for consultants between big developers and Council regeneration schemes, and it’s vital that these experts do not also have commercial interests while working on behalf of Londoners.

The new team needs to be expanded quickly and this should not be done by hiring in consultants on short term contracts, but by building up a dedicated and permanent expert team that works only in the public interest.

Sadiq Khan is currently consulting on draft Affordable Housing and Viability Supplementary Guidance (consultation ends 28th February 2017) LINK

It is clear from the draft extracts below that more than two experts will be required to give close attention to schemes when developers argue that they will only be 'viable' if less than 50% of housing is 'affordable'.  In truth two people would hardly be adequate for developments taking place just within Brent in Wembley Park, South Kilburn and Alperton. The problem that 'affordable' is not really affordable and Brent  regular backs down in the face of viability assessments has been covered on this blog LINK and reported on Get West London website LINK

VIABILITY ASSESSMENTS

14 The third part of the SPG (Supplementary Planning Guidance) provides detailed guidance on viability assessments, aiming to establish a standardised approach to viability. The SPG clearly sets out what information and assumptions should be included in a viability appraisal. It builds on the London Borough Development Viability Protocol and aims to provide a clear approach that can be consistently applied across London.

15 It sets out the Mayor’s expectations when it comes to the publication of viability information, requiring all information to be made public, including council and third party assessments. Applicants will have the opportunity to argue that limited elements should be kept undisclosed, but the onus is on the applicant to make this case.

16 The SPG is explicit about the Mayor’s preference for using Existing Use Value Plus as the comparable Benchmark Land Value when assessing the viability of a proposal. The premium above Existing Use Value will be based on site by site justification reflecting the circumstances of the site and landowner.

THE MAYOR AND REFERABLE APPLICATIONS

1.16 Given the strategic importance of affordable housing delivery and the significant impact of reduced levels of affordable housing on the delivery of the London Plan, the Mayor will consider directing that he is to be the Local Planning Authority for the purposes of determining an application (often referred to as a ‘call in’) or directing refusal when:

•       he is not satisfied with the viability information submitted by the applicant, the assumptions that underpin the information, or the level of scrutiny given by the LPA; 


•       he considers the viability information submitted may suggest a higher level of affordable housing could reasonably be provided; 


•       the chance of significant contribution to affordable housing could be forgone due to other grounds and the Mayor wants to review the weight the LPA has given to competing planning objectives. 


Upcoming Pupil Census raises vital issues for schools and parents

'Against Borders for Children' will be holding a conference on January 14th to discuss the government's use of the annual school census to create a 'hostile environment' for migrants by requesting birth and nationality information from parents.

This is a particular issue for Brent schools where many children are from a migrant background and where families, after Brexit and a rise in hostility, are anxious about the future.

ABC is a coalition of parents, teachers, schools and campaigners. This is what they say about their campaign:

Our aim is to reverse the Department of Education’s (DfE) policy, effective from September 2016, to collect country of birth and nationality information on 8 million children in England in order to ‘create a hostile environment’ for migrant children in schools.

This new immigration data will be collected through the School Census and then permanently stored on the National Pupil Database. These censuses happen every year and every academic term respectively. The next happens in Spring 2017.

Providing this data is optional and does not affect school funding.

This means parents and schools can legally work together to withhold this information from DfE.

Education officials have an agreement to share the personal details of up to 1,500 schoolchildren a month with the Home Office, The Guardian reports.

The agreement, which has been in place since June 2015, is outlined in a memorandum of understanding between the Department for Education (DfE) and the Home Office. This step is a diluted form of Theresa May’s 2015 stated goal of having schools check passports before accepting new pupils and withdrawing and deprioritising places for migrant children.

As well as using the data to target individual children and families, we are concerned that members of the public, journalists, government departments, and other organisations will also be able to access schools’ immigration numbers. With a huge rise in racist hate crime since the Brexit vote, we fear for the safety of schoolchildren nationwide.

So we are organising a national boycott until the Department of Education reverses this policy and commits to safeguarding children from the stigma of anti-immigrant rhetoric and the violence that accompanies it.

Update: The campaign has won a concession to exclude collecting nationality data in the Early Years census that concerns toddlers.

What you can do:

If you are a parent, you can learn more about how to protect your child’s data.
If you are a teacher, learn how you can get involved.
For more questions, please contact us.

Supporting organisations

Over 20 organisations signed our letter to Justine Greening, calling on the Secretary of State for Education to reverse the policy and to commit to protecting all children from stigma, xenophobia, and violence. They are:

• Zita Holbourne, Co-Founder / National Co-Chair, Black Activists Rising Against Cuts
• Sabir Zazai, Chair of Trustees, City of Sanctuary
• The Children’s Society
• Jen Persson, Coordinator, defenddigitalme
• Remi Joseph-Salisbury,  Founding Member, Critical Race and Ethnicities Network
• Nick Dearden, Director, Global Justice Now
• Liz Fekete, Director, Institute of Race Relations
• Rizwan Hussain, Founder and Director, Jawaab
• Saira Grant, Chief Executive, Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants
• Carolina Gottardo, Director, Latin American Women’s Rights Service
• Bella Sankey, Director of Policy, Liberty
• Stephanie O’Connor, Chair, London Campaign Against Police and State Violence
• Wayne Myslik, Director, Migrants Resource Centre
• Don Flynn, Director, Migrants’ Rights Network
• Malia Bouattia, President, National Union of Students
• Jim Killock, Executive Director, Open Rights Group
• Gus Hosein, Executive Director, Privacy International
• Jabeer Butt, Deputy Chief Executive, Race Equality Foundation
• Rita Chadha, Chief Executive, RAMFEL
• Maurice Wren, Chief Executive, Refugee Council
• Lisa Matthews, Coordinator, Right to Remain
• Pragna Patel, Director, Southall Black Sisters
• Suresh Grover, Director, The Monitoring Group

ABC have published resources for parents and schools, including model letters refusing data, on their website HERE

The human rights organisation Liberty said:

Foreign worker lists? This is a foreign children list

It bears a striking resemblance to the Home Secretary’s recent suggestion that companies will be forced to reveal the number of non-UK workers they employ which was widely decried as toxic and xenophobic.

However, the schools policy goes even further, establishing a national register of non-national children linked to their name, address, and other sensitive personal data.

This register will be accessible by multiple third parties with opaque and minimal oversight.

Border controls in our classrooms

This is a dangerous expansion of border control powers into children’s school lives. We now know that Theresa May's Home Office had plans to 'deprioritise' children of illegal immigrants on lists for school places.

With high levels of hate crime reported since the Brexit referendum, measures such as these risk victimising children in schools, a place where they should feel free and safe to learn and grow – rather than be a source of information on their parents or a target for immigration enforcement.

Already there have been reports of non-white children being asked to produce immigration documents at school.

The National Union of Teachers has published advice for members and guidelines for a school policy on the issue that can be put to governing bodies HERE 

Where to recycle your Christmas tree in Brent

Following the introduction of the 'garden tax' payment for green  waste collections there was a substantial problem of dumped Christmas trees last year on the pavement and in flower beds and shrubberies around Brent. Some hung around through the summer into autumn.

Brent Council has warned that trees dumped in this way count as fly-tipping. This is their guidance:

Christmas tree recycling

Getting rid of your real Christmas tree after the festive season has ended for another year can be a headache for some, but there are a number of ways that it can be done.

How to recycle your tree

There are three ways you can recycle your Christmas tree this winter.

Option 1

You can take it down to the Reuse and Recycling Centre in Abbey Road. Please note this will be closed on  1 January 2017.

Option 2

If you're signed up to the garden waste service you can cut your tree into pieces and place these in your green bin and we'll take it in the January collection of the garden waste service.

• Find out when your next collection day is

Option 3

You can also take your Christmas tree to a drop off point in a local park or green space in January.  Look out for this poster  to direct you to the drop off point.

• Alperton: One Tree Hill (entrance off Bridgewater Road)
• Barnhill: Barnhill Open Space (top of Barnhill)
• Brondesbury Park: Brondesbury Pocket Park
• Chalkhill Rec Ground/New Linear Park (Chalkhill Road)
• Dollis Hill and Dudden Hill: Gladstone Park – Kendal Road entrance
• Fryent: Silver Jubilee Park (Bottom of townsend lane)
• Harlesden: Roundwood Park (main entrance Harlesden Road)
• Kensal Green: Furness Road Pocket Park (entrance off Furness Road)
• Kenton: Woodcock Park (entrance off Shaftesbury Avenue)
• Kilburn: Woodhouse New Park (Entrance off Albert Road)
• Tokyngton: King Edward VII Park( Car park St Johns Road)
• Mapesbury: Gladstone Park –Kendal Road entrance
• Northwick Park: Northwick Park (by the car park)
• Queensbury: Roe Green Park (Entrance off Kingsbury High Road)
• Preston: Preston Park Recreation ground (Car Park College Road)
• Queens Park: Queens Park (Kingswood Avenue, the gate is opposite Montrose Avenue and the post code is NW6 6SG)
• Stonebridge: Stonebridge Recreation ground (Car Park at Albert Terrace)
• Sudbury: Barham Park – by main car park/Library
• Willesden Green: King Edward VII Park (Doyle Gardens next to City Academy)
• Villiers Road Pocket Park (Entrance to Villiers Road)
• Welsh Harp: Welsh Harp open space (Carpark)
• Wembley Central: One Tree Hill (Bridgewater Road)

Brent's Cricklewood PSPO against casual workers opposed by Brent's Independent councillor

Cllr Helen Carr (Independent, Mabesbury) has reiterated her opposition to the extension of a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) in Cricklewood. Consultation has closed on the extension which will go through to December 2017. The PSPO is aimed at workers waiting to be picked up for casual work. This has been a traditional picking up point for decades and formerly the casual workers were Irish, now they are also from Eastern and Central Europe.

Cllr Carr said,  "Shall we ban the homeless, as far right Hungarian, Victor Orban, has done?" LINK

She went on:

I oppose this extension, on the following grounds: This is a draconian measure not originally intended as a response to the complaints of, what I understand it, are a handful of people, albeit they have clocked up more than 400 complaints in a year. This does not mean people should not complain - I myself continually alert the Transport police to Romanian speaking beggars on the underground (a losing battle ..,) who when challenged in Romanian (as I am very capable of doing given my background), can become aggressive. But we need to ask who these young women are (invariably young women), where are they from, and why do they beg? Are they being coerced by a larger, nastier gang (invariably yes) observing them from the next carriage who will physically abuse them if they do not bring home a set amount of takings each day?  

The measure is not successful: at 7am, when I usually set out for work and pass through the Broadway, it did not take long for the small groups of men hoping to gain work, to resume unchallenged. The measure ensured they congregated elsewhere outside the zone, and in cafes etc. As I understand it from the Police themselves, this is an historical issue and originates long before the arrival of Romanians, who seems to be the new Irish in terms of being subject to prejudice and discrimination as the suppliers of no skill/low skilled casual labour. 

Not all residents support this move: I appreciate and agree with those who claim the police are unable to implement the measure - they have more serious issues to attend to. This, then, sets a very bad precedent. In the UK, policing is by consent. Servants not masters. In Romania, as in other new democracies of Eastern & Central Europe  I have lived and worked in which are only recently free of totalitarian rule, the police are a generally viewed as bodies to be feared. They operate by  a mixture of dazzle, bribery and intimidation: coercion not persuasion and consensus. We need to use these measures sparingly if the tolerance and co operation of our own police are not to be considered weaknesses and vulnerabilities to be exploited.

These are difficult and dangerous times. We need to protect those fleeing war, persecution, discrimination and deprivation. Not lock them up.

This was the Council's introduction to the consultation:

Brent Council is consulting to extend a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) from 21 December, 2016 until 20 December, 2017, which banned the practice of picking up workers for casual cash-in-hand labour within a specified area. Casual workers hired in this way are often exploited, earning less than the minimum wage and exposed to unsafe working environments.

The congregation of people looking for casual work has long been causing problems in the community. The individuals harass and intimidate passers-by and are responsible for other anti-social behaviour in the area. For a number of years there have been complaints from residents and businesses about groups of casual labourers congregating in Cricklewood Broadway and surrounding roads and car parks who harass, intimidate and enact other ASB. A side-effect of this labour market is increased rough sleeping in Brent’s parks, as well as additional levels of street drinking and a spike in offences such as criminal damage and burglary.

From 01/04/2016 to the 30/10/2016 there have been 170 calls – 13% of the calls were between 07:00 and 12:00 hours, this is the peak time for the direct ASB impact from the migrant labour market. We have issued many warnings to businesses advising that they can be fined for picking up workers, and this is reducing the number of people gathering in these areas in hopes of work. However, there is still a long way to go, and we need to keep reinforcing this message consistently to reduce the problem further.  The current PSPO expires on 20 December, 2016.

The consultation will consider whether the PSPO should be extended for a further 12 months until 20 December, 2017, to allow us to continue to penalise those who encourage casual labour markets in the area. The restricted area and prohibitions will remain the same.

Proposed area:

Shoot Up Hill junction with Walm Lane to Chichele Road to Anson Road to Heber Road to Larch Road to Mora Road to Cricklewood Broadway following the railway line to the iron bridge and south along Cricklewood Broadway to Shoot Up Hill junction with Walm Lane. This also includes all other roads, any public space, and communal areas within the mapped area,

The controversy  follows that over a report to the Council's Equality Committee on the Eastern European Community which it was alleged perpetuated negative stereotypes about the Romanian community in particular. LINK LINK