{"id":411,"date":"2010-12-06T07:40:24","date_gmt":"2010-12-06T07:40:24","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2010-12-06T07:40:24","modified_gmt":"2010-12-06T07:40:24","slug":"unison-write-to-leader-of-barnet-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.barnetunison.me.uk\/wp\/2010\/12\/06\/unison-write-to-leader-of-barnet-council\/","title":{"rendered":"UNISON write to Leader of Barnet Council"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/v:stroke><\/v:f><\/v:f><\/v:f><\/v:f><\/v:f><\/v:f><\/v:f><\/v:f><\/v:f><\/v:f><\/v:f><\/v:f><\/v:formulas><\/v:path><\/o:lock><\/v:shapetype><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

6 December 2010<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Dear Lynne <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

RE: Budget Consultation 2011-12<\/o:p><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

I have been reflecting on what happened at the end of last week. As you know on Friday Council staff attended Budget a number of briefings and 818 of them received protective redundancy notices, something I have not seen in 16 years of working in Barnet Council.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

I noted your comment at the last Cabinet when you said you had not come into politics to have make cuts to services but that we are in unprecedented times. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The consultation process has begun and I will be submitting more detailed response with the other Trade Unions in due course but I think that as we are living in extraordinary times I wish to give you\u00a0some initial comments. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

If there was one current feeling I would like to report from staff it would be confusion. The confusion is not that they don\u2019t recognise that we are in difficult financial times, but at the approach the Council is adopting in response\u00a0to responding to this problem and why they are not being engaged in the process. It is a theme that the Joint Trade Unions have documented in over 20 reports over the last two years. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

In times when every income source is precious to the council, staff working in services that generate income are angry and shocked that the Council would want to share that income with another organisation. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

I would like to draw your attention to two significant\u00a0income generating services albeit there are others. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/o:p><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Parking.<\/o:p><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

A decision has been made to privatise this service but no evidence has been offered by management to support the decisions being made. UNISON submitted a detailed report to which, to date,\u00a0we have no response. I have bullet pointed below some of the key issues:<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span>\u201cDid you know that many pcn.s are contested by vehicle owners and are eventually resolved through an adjudication process. Last year Westminster was next to bottom in winning adjudications (21%) i.e. 4 out of 5 drivers that contest their parking ticket in Westminster get off without paying anything. <\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span>In 2008\/09, that council’s private sector process provider (Vertex) did not contest 14,000 appeals which equates to approximately a loss of \u00a31.12m. <\/o:p><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span>Why is Westminster being quoted particularly by senior officers,\u00a0as the example to follow?\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span>\u201cDid you know in the last year across London private sector parking enforcement companies performed 29% worse than in-house operations, <\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span>How does the decision to appoint and external provider to deliver parking control in Barnet benefit our community?\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n