Welcome to the website of Barnet TUC (Barnet trades council)
Annual general meeting: Thursday 25 March; meeting includes guest speakers. Details from info@barnettuc.org.uk.
Sheltered housing campaign...
Sheltered housing residents from Barnet won their legal case against Barnet council, who were found not to have complied with the Disability Discrimination Act when they decided to cut the wardens from sheltered housing. Barnet decided not to appeal, but is planning to run its consultation again to comply with the law. While Barnet's sheltered housing is safe this year, therefore, it will be under threat again - as soon as the elections are out of the way. Keep checking back for campaign dates. Thank you.
Email wardens@barnettuc.org.uk for details. David Young, Barnet resident and a key organiser of the campaign, says:
“We have got to save our Wardens and sheltered housing for the elderly now, and for our children in the future. The alternative will be to stay at home with your family if you have one, or move into a care home. The party leaders must give us a yes or no answer.”
Read the latest press release here: Barnet council is given leave to appeal the High Court's decision, and might do so in early February. Kingsley Court residents say to all the main parties: No warden, no vote!
Brent Cross redevelopment
The council has decided to pursue its original plan for the redevelopment of Brent Cross. Details here
More details of the Brent Cross coalition for a sustainable redevelopment plan (which Barnet TUC has joined) here
Support the postal workers! Defend jobs in Royal Mail and defend Royal Mail's future as a publicly owned service. More details from the Communication Workers' Union (CWU). For information about postal workers support in north west London email post@barnettuc.org.uk.
Barnet council's Future Shape plans - anything but easy
You can download the Future Shape report and other documents, passed at Barnet Council's cabinet meeting on 21st October, from the council website here. Other items on the agenda were the Brent Cross regeneration scheme and the council's response to the recession.
Council unions, Barnet trades council, and residents opposed to the Future Shape privatisation lobbied outside Hendon Town Hall, the Burroughs, and several questions were tabled by the public. We also launched the manifesto for the public services. For more details email manifesto@barnettuc.org.uk.
 
A manifesto for the public services
Barnet council trade unions, Barnet trades council, and a number of residents have launched a manifesto for the public services to serve two purposes in the coming period:
- as a benchmark against which we can judge the policies of politicians seeking our votes
- as a set of principles to guide our own actions. To summarise its contents at the moment: we will defend public services!
We are inviting residents' and other organisations in Barnet to join the process of discussing the manifesto, the issues raised in it, and proposing amendments. The manifesto will be finalised, taking on board people's suggestions, in the spring at which point organisations/individuals can decide whether they want to put their names to it or not.
If you would like more information about this, email Barnet trades council - manifesto@barnettuc.org.uk - as they will be playing a coordinating role. Thank you.
Barnet council joint trade unions respond to Guardian reports of the administration's plans for Barnet "easyCouncil"
Barnet Joint Trade Unions Press Release: 28 Aug 2009
“Tories adopt budget airline service model”(Guardian 28 Aug 2009)
The Joint Trade unions would like to express our extreme concerns that any decisions about the future of public services in Barnet have been already made.
Consultation on the Future Shape project has been going on for the past 14 months. In December last year, Cabinet agreed a model which proposed to transfer most of the council’s services to another employer leaving a small core of staff to carry out a commissioning function.
On the 6th July 09 Barnet Council Cabinet Committee rejected the mass outsourcing model.
It is therefore disappointing to read a substantial article in a national newspaper which states the Council is suggesting public services could be run as effectively as the “easyJet/Ryanair model”.
This is the same Ryanair who are “looking at the possibility of installing a coin slot on the lavatory door so that people might actually have to spend a pound to spend a penny.”
Public services are accountable to the tax payer and those requiring public services. It is important that those providing services are providing quality and delivering efficiencies which are then reinvested back into frontline services such as schools and social care services.
It is disappointing to read on the front page of today’s Guardian that the “council plans to make savings by outsourcing services and reducing the size of its 3,500 strong workforce.”
We have previously been told that Future Shape is not a return to the 1980s (‘Life on Mars’) of CCT which saw the mass sell-off of council services, which subsequently failed to deliver quality or value for money and had to be brought back in-house, all at the expense of the local tax payers.
The Trade Unions believe that directly employed staff are best able to provide high quality and accountable public services to residents. We would add that central government needs to allow councils greater financial freedoms to be able to deliver public services.
Contact: John Burgess Barnet UNISON on 07738 389569 or email john.burgess@barnetunison.org.uk
Sheltered housing campaign
 
REPORT: Sheltered housing national demonstration, Wednesday 22 July
The demonstration was organised by Kingsley Court Strategy Committee's David Young, supported by Sheltered Housing UK, and well attended by Barnet residents from several schemes - in spite of the difficulty of getting to and around Parliament Square! We assembled, were photographed, filmed and interviewed, then marched around the square, and up Whitehall to Downing Street. A delegation, led by broadcaster Joan Bakewell, went to hand a letter to the Prime Minister calling on him to intervene to save sheltered housing. The gist of that message is:
“Pensioners from sheltered housing schemes throughout England demand the Government reverse their policy on sheltered housing, so councils will reinstate sheltered wardens. The Government says they can’t intervene, because this is a local government issue. We have come from across the nation and are all affected — this is a national issue! Take responsibility for once Gordon, and sort it out.”
Download press release here. More campaigning events will follow. To receive notification, email wardens@barnettuc.org.uk
Demonstration against the BNP's 'Red, white and blue' festival, Codnor, Derbyshire. Saturday 15 August 2009
Barnet trades council supported the protest against the BNP's 'family festival' held at a farm in Derbyshire. We booked a coach for transport. The protest was organised by anti-fascist campaigns local to Codnor, and was supported by Midlands TUC and Unite Against Fascism.
APPEAL: Trade unions raising funds to pay for expert advice on Future Shape
When Future Shape was first proposed, Barnet council accepted that the council trade unions would need expert advice to help them prepare their response. The council agreed to fund work by the unions’ chosen expert: Professor Dexter Whitfield. Now the council has decided that it doesn’t like the advice that Professor Whitfield has been giving the unions, and it has decided to cut the funding.
The unions have decided to raise the money themselves to pay for Professor Whitfield’s services, and have launched a fundraising drive. In contrast to the staggering £130,000 that the council paid PricewaterhouseCoopers for work on the Future Shape report, Professor Whitfield’s services in the next period will cost just £8,025. We have already had pledges for some of that money. If you have any fundraising ideas, please get in touch — we are organising a local band night, among other events.
Anyone wishing to make a donation please email FutureShape@barnettuc.org.uk for our postal address and/or bank details. Thank you.
 Future Shape - it IS pear-shaped!
The administration in London Borough of Barnet is planning wholesale changes to the way services are delivered (in short, they would like to privatise a large proportion, with the council itself reduced to a so-called 'strategic hub' looking at 'big picture' issues such as obesity and climate change - or so the rhetoric goes!). They have embarked on discussions about this, called 'Future Shape'.
Check Barnet Unison website www.barnetunison.me.uk for details of the council unions' response to 'Future Shape'.
|
