Barnet bloggers have sent a joint letter to Councillors this afternoon following the resignation of Nick Walkley
Dear Councillor
It was announced yesterday that Mr Nick Walkley, the
Chief Executive of Barnet Council, is leaving in order to take up a position in
Haringey.
This unexpected development immediately raises the most
serious questions regarding the progress of the controversial £1billion One
Barnet programme which is due to outsource the majority of our council services
to the private sector: a hugely over ambitious project which bears the risk of
being a spectacular failure, and having a devastating impact on the lives of
residents in our borough.
We have a right to know why Mr Walkley, the architect of
this programme, is leaving at this crucial point in the proceedings, just as
the procurement process reaches its conclusion, and the successful bidders are
chosen.
We note that this departure arises in the wake of the
revelation that the council leader, Councillor Richard Cornelius, admits that
he knew nothing about a decision by the senior officers of the council to
change the outsourcing model of the DRS service bid from a strategic
partnership to an even higher risk Joint Venture. This is a decision which has
been taken by officers acting with consultants and bidders, without oversight
from the elected members of this authority, and is therefore an action taken in
open defiance of the democratic process which us supposed to safeguard the best
interests of residents of this borough.
We question the unrestricted expenditure of millions of
pounds on unaccountable consultants acting as "implementation
partners" for what is, at best, the biggest risk undertaken by any local
authority with the money and trust invested in them by residents and tax
payers: a scandalous waste of our money
at what is supposed to be a time of austerity, and when we have seen savage
reductions in council spending, leading to widespread hardship and the loss of
community resources such as the much loved local library in Friern Barnet, and
the Church Farmhouse museum.
As residents, tax payers, and local bloggers, we call for
an emergency session of the full council in order to discuss the implications
of Mr Walkley's resignation and for the immediate suspension of the One Barnet
programme pending the outcome of an external and fully independent audit of the
risks involved in this £1 billion gamble with our money, our services, Our
Barnet.
Yours faithfully
Derek Dishman
John Dix
Vicki Morris
Theresa Musgrove
Roger Tichborne
A big thank-you to the Barnet Bloggers for these thoughtful, detailed and factual entries.
ReplyDeleteAs you may imagine, alarm bells are ringing for many Haringey residents and even a few councillors at the news that your Chief Executive is headed our way.
To be frank, until now some of us have not paid much attention to your blogs. We hope you'll understand this was due mainly to a focus on serious local issues of our own. But also because we were under the impression that Haringey had a Labour-led council.
Haringey is not the caricature of a Labour borough in the right-wing press. We have a sensible blend of public-private-voluntary sector delivery of services. But selling-off-the-Borough-for-a-bag-of-magic-beans, which seems to be the Barnet model, is not one we felt deprived of.
And, to be fair to Mr Walkley, there is a view that a Chief Executive is entirely neutral: a civil servant functionary who carries out the policies determined by a higher power: the Dear Leader and her wise cabinet.
Alan Stanton
Tottenham Hale ward councillor