With just days to go until Barnet Council Cabinet are due to decide on who to award a £750m contract - BT or Capita - we are asking Barnet residents to email councillors in the ruling Conservative group to ask them to think again.

We are suggesting the text below, but please send whatever message you want to send. You can automatically send the message below to the members of the Cabinet by using the URGENT EMAIL ACTION button (see right).

Suggested text

Dear Councillor,

It looks to me, as a tax payer and a voter, that the One Barnet Programme of privatisation is being rushed through behind our backs. This does not inspire confidence in the validity of One Barnet or its chances of success.

Below are a few questions which should be considered in deciding whether or not to adopt the One Barnet Programme.

Though complex and technical in nature, it is not sufficient to abdicate personal responsibility to the cabinet or council officers. You need to feel confident that you understand the answers to these questions before you can vote with any conviction for or against the One Barnet Programme.

1. What model of privatisation is being implemented: Strategic outsourcing or Joint venture? What are the risks inherent for each of these options? Have these risks been documented and planned for by the programme team and more importantly by internal audit, external audit and the Audit Committee?

2. How are delivery of service, quality, complaints and customer satisfaction going to be managed and by whom (monthly service reviews, measuring, escalations, reporting, punitive clauses in contracts)? What influence will councillors retain under One Barnet regarding complaints?

3. How many jobs in total will be lost due to One Barnet? Of those jobs being outsourced to private companies, what percentage will stay in the borough?

4. Have you met any of the residents who are receiving services already outsourced to private companies?

5. Regarding IT systems, when changes and updates are needed because legislation, policies or the services have changed, how are these changes going to be paid for?  Have you read the clauses in the contracts that clarify this point?

6. Have rigorous measures been put in place to restrict the private companies profiting from ‘change requests’ which incur additional costs or cuts in services?

7. What are the details of the contingency plans for the One Barnet changes? Even smaller programmes have a Plan B. It is professional and political suicide not to have one!

8. Finally, how, if this privatisation goes ahead, will it affect your role as councillors and the allowances you receive?

The current rush to make such huge and complex changes needs to be put on hold and time given to allow for serious scrutiny. This should not be an ideological or party political issue.

Consider what is happening in Cornwall and their own outsourcing programme and remember it is not too late to stop and take stock and consider the implications of ‘One Barnet’ for the people you represent and the office you have been trusted to serve.

Yours,

[resident's name]