Barnet council relents over union AGM - and it's today!

A story that deserved more attention earlier. Breaking with the tradition of countless decades, Barnet council had decided that this year it would not give Unison members permission to attend their union AGM in worktime.

This snub came in the context of the One Barnet privatisation programme starting to be implemented, with several council staff being "bundled up" for sale to the highest bidder. And in the context of 350 redundancies being announced.

So it really was quite a big two-fingers up to this union, and, by extension, all the unions, and, indeed, all the workforce.

Unison changed the time of the meeting to the end of the day, making it easier for people to attend. In a bit of a coup, they also managed to get the Unison general secretary Dave Prentis to come and speak at the meeting to show his solidarity with the branch. If you know anything about Dave Prentis's politics or how he runs the union, you will appreciate how significant it was that he is coming to speak.

Anyway, some part of the council has seen enough sense to reverse the decision, to revert to tradition and allow Unison members time off to attend their branch AGM.

Here's the word from the union:

Council agree time off for members to attend our AGM

Barnet UNISON AGM Thurs 3rd March 3.30 pm

These are indeed very different times. The rules of engagement are shifting and we need to be prepared. Our branch has with the support of Professor Dexter Whitfield produced over 25 detailed reports [on the] One Barnet programme. It is clear that our members are facing the most difficult time of their lives so it is important the union is able to be there for its members.

I am pleased to report the Council have relented and time off has been agreed for members to attend the AGM.

Dave Prentis UNISON General Secretary is coming down to speak at our AGM to offer his backing to our branch and our members.

Please make every effort to come.

So Barnet council Unison - I wish you good deliberations!

Transparency Barnet council style

Barnet council leader Lynne Hillan has budged. She has. I'm sure she'd deny it, but I will say it. After telling the Times series on Monday that there'd be no filming, blogging or tweeting in the public gallery while she is Leader (are you sure you want to bring that up, Lynne?), this morning she had made some attempt to appear reasonable. She told the Times that, although residents still would not be allowed to film the council meeting:

“I think the world has moved on since we last debated this. Frankly we all expect to be able to find the whole world on YouTube now.

"My own view is that the public would be best served by us live streaming council over the web, but this is a matter for the whole of council to debate. I am happy to have that debate at full council in the near future.”

Well, that's it then, she's budged, and we'll hold her to it. She takes some shifting, does Lynne Hillan, but a good fortnight of harrying, and judicious use of the pronouncements in favour of transparency from her own government, plus one manic afternoon on phone and email to Bindmans, human rights lawyers (I have to thank them a lot for their work) have resulted in this grudging half-promise to bring Barnet into the 21st century.

Unlike some more frugally-minded bloggers, I think that the council should spend some money on getting the job done properly and having professional filming, as Haringey does, for example. And then, in addition to that, allowing blogging, filming and tweeting in the public gallery.

My own experience of filming in the public gallery was that it is pretty tedious, but then my equipment was a bit clapped out (and, to be frank, so was I). But AL managed to get some nice clips. See them here.

The interest with these clips is less the content - it's a council meeting, fer chrissakes! - than the fact that AL got these bits of film at all. Because AL and me, in my own feeble way, and Mrs A, all had to do our filming with the threat of being booted out hanging over us.

In the event, we were not booted out (I came close, for a bout of sustained heckling, but I won't bore you with the details of that now). Whatever the "legality" (huh!) of Barnet council's filming ban, at least among some parts of the council apparatus - some of the Tory group, some of the council officers: it's not clear who - there isn't the appetite to enforce it.

That's great news. It means the ban is a dead letter.

P.S. Oh, yeah, the g*ts passed their £54.4 million cuts and privatisation budget, but let's celebrate our tiny victories. On those, we build.

Is Lynne Hillan infringing my human rights?

Several members of Barnet's blogging community have spent much of today contemplating how to respond to Lynne Hillan's stubborn decision not to allow blogging, filming and tweeting in the public gallery at council meetings.

The decision relates mainly to Tuesday's council meeting, where the council is - alas - likely to adopt a plan for £54.4 million cuts. However, unless they change their minds, the ban will hold good for all council meetings.

So it is well worth challenging! I set out at lunchtime to get some legal advice and by 6pm was sending a solicitor's letter to Lynne Hillan.

It questions Hillan's decision on a number of grounds. One of them, the finest, I think, is that she is infringing my human rights. I suspect, however, that the one that will carry the most weight with Hillan is that she is flouting recent guidance from her own Conservative government, and the fact that the letter has been copied to Secretary of State Eric Pickles.

Let's see how Hillan responds. In any case, whether she relents or not, a number of Barnet residents plan to test her ruling by blogging, filming and tweeting in the public gallery on Tuesday night. The anti-cuts protest at Hendon Town Hall begins at 6pm, and the council meeting itself starts at 7pm.

Lynne Hillan digs in her kitten heels

Barnet bloggers have been wondering how Barnet council's Tory group would respond to their own government's advice to let residents film and tweet about council meetings.

It was predictable that they would not embrace the new era of transparency, and would only grudgingly bend to the winds of change. The Tory group, I've heard, had a stormy meeting about the issue. I can imagine how opinion might have divided, roughly along the lines of the close vote during the challenge to Lynne Hillan's leadership.

I understand Lynne Hillan was not at this meeting and therefore could not vote for herself on this occasion. But she has given an interview to the Times series clearly giving the line: there will be no filming, blogging or tweeting on my watch! Read the article here.

I am one of those who has pledged to test Barnet's stand on this. Apparently it does not say anywhere in the council's constitution that residents cannot film, blog or tweet from the public gallery. When the rules on the questions of public and media access to council meetings were written, such ideas as YouTube, Twitter and Blogger were but a twinkle in a geek's eye.

I think blogger David Hencke this morning adequately sums up Hillan's position:

This dinosaur attitude from a Queen Canute is breathtaking. Her ignorance about how the modern world works is absurd. Presumably her next step as Barnet leader will be to table a motion condemning Lady Thatcher for allowing the public by law to attend council meetings.

We will go ahead and attempt to assert our right to film, tweet and blog at the council meeting at Hendon Town Hall tomorrow night, Tuesday 1 March (6pm for the anti-cuts lobby, 7pm for the council meeting). I will have copies of the DCLG guidance for residents to brandish.

Finally, remember that Hillan has dug in her heels on previous occasions, only to be forced to climb down in the teeth of fierce opposition.

The public occasions I know about are Allowancegate, when she partially backed off raising senior cabinet members' allowances (committee chairs still went on to get a huge rise), and the case of Edward Meakins, where Barnet Homes relented in their threat to move him out of his home of 74 years. (Barnet Homes is separate - at arm's length - from Barnet council, but I cannot believe that the Tory administration did not put pressure on Barnet Homes to change their decision.)

We know, then, that Hillan can be budged, but we also know, from these examples, that it takes an almighty force of opposition to budge her - and that she doesn't give in graciously!

Our right to film and tweet

Eric Pickles' announcement in favour of residents being allowed (!) to use their social media devices to record council meetings - filming, tweeting and what have you - is accompanied by official guidance to councils. (Thanks to Dan Hope for drawing my attention to this.)

The letter is available here.

Dan will say that this shows the Tory government is committed to transparency. I suspect they are just bowing to the inevitable - you cannot hold back the tide of technological advance, and only look stupid if you try. This way, they get a bit of credit out of it.

There might be an undercurrent to this, that the Tories nationally continue to be embarassed by Barnet council (and other 'bad' Tory councils). I know that Eric Pickles, the Secretary of State, was informed about residents in Barnet being stopped from filming at last week's cabinet meeting.

As we know, rights are only active if you exercise them. Let's test this newly ceded right to film and tweet at the council meeting next Tuesday, 1 March. There will be a lobby against cuts from 6pm, outside Hendon Town Hall, and then residents can (I hope) go inside to watch the council meeting, which starts at 7pm.

I am printing off copies of the DCLG guidance to give to residents going into the meeting. If we do nothing else on Tuesday night, at least we can wave this letter in one hand and our cameraphones in the other at Brian Coleman while shouting 'smile for the camera' - obviously, that is only one suggestion for a slogan.

Barnet council failed in bid for Decent Homes grant

I'm combing Barnet council's website now to look for pronouncements on their (failed) bid for Decent Homes grant money. What will be the implications of our failure to get this money for repairs to social housing in the borough? The money will have to be found from elsewhere, or essential upgrading will not be done...

Here's how the local press reported to Enfield the good news that their bid was successful - and how we found out that Barnet's had not been.

(Thanks to JC for spotting this story.)

Citizen journalists of Barnet, unite! Council meeting, 1 March

On Monday 14 February an innocuous young man was threatened with expulsion from the public gallery at the Barnet cabinet meeting. His crime? Attempting to make a short film of proceedings on his phone.

How behind the times Barnet council shows itself to be. They act in a draconian manner to stop their own residents (to whom they are accountable) from using a piece of equipment that has become as everyday and routine as the pop-up toaster. Haven't they seen how people in the Middle East and North Africa are using social media to help them win their democracy?

I invite every resident coming to the council meeting at Hendon Town Hall next Tuesday 1 March to come with their cameraphones at the ready. Perhaps Brian Coleman will learn some manners if he knows that what he says will end up on YouTube for all the world to see before the night is out.

Oh, and who is this agreeing with the call for greater openness? This is a statement made today by none other than Eric Pickles, the Conservative Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government:

"Many councils are internet-savvy and stream meetings online, but some don't seem to have caught up with the times and are refusing to let bloggers or hyper-local news sites in. With local authorities in the process of setting next year's budget this is more important than ever.

"Opening the door to new media costs nothing and will help improve public scrutiny. The greater powers and freedoms that we are giving local councils must be accompanied by stronger local accountability.

"We are in the digital age and [the] analogue interpretation of the press access rules is holding back a new wave of local scrutiny, accountability and armchair auditors."

Barnet's bad news Sunday - parking fees in the Express

Barnet council's cabinet meeting on Monday 14 February (a week is a long time in Barnet politics) features in this exposé by the Express, "Council car fees rip-off":

Barnet Council’s income from parking fees has more than doubled in four years from £2.2million to £4.7million.

Police were called to a council meeting last week after residents in the north London borough protested at plans to double the cost of parking permits this year and raise the cost of a three-month visitor permit 400 per cent to £240.

There are a couple of useful websites if you are interested in the campaign against CPZ fee rises in Barnet: the CPZ Action Group and dino.co.uk, featuring a great poster!

And two petitions: "We are not cash cows..." on the Barnet council website and "Stop Barnet council's increased motoring taxes" on GoPetition.

A number of residents are mounting a legal challenge over the CPZ fee rises; I hope they will still turn out to lobby the council meeting on Tuesday 1 March from 6pm at Hendon Town Hall. This is the evening that the council ratifies the budget adopted by the Cabinet on Monday night.

Strong vote for action against privatisation from Barnet staff

Barnet Unison reports on the outcome of a ballot for industrial action by council staff confronted with transfer to the private sector in line with easyCouncil plans:

Council workers vote for strike action

Council staff working in the following services: cemeteries, planning, highways, land charges, registrars, environmental health, building control, trading standards have overwhelmingly voted to take action short of strike and strike action in a ballot conducted over the last three weeks.

There was a 58% turn out with 92% agreeing to action short of strike and 77% agreeing to strike action.

Barnet UNISON is organising union meetings with members to discuss the next steps.

Discovery of legionella in Fremantle care homes

Barnet Unison are calling for an inquiry into the discovery of legionella bacteria at some Fremantle care homes in Barnet.

Read the union's questions here and link here to the letter issued by Barnet council and NHS Barnet to staff and clients of Apthorp Lodge and Dell Field Court.