Barnet Alliance for Public Services

PRESS RELEASE – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 30 August 2013

R.I.P. Barnet Public Services – Residents mourn the takeover by Capita

‘People in Barnet are dismayed at the Council’s massive outsourcing not only without consultation,’ says BAPS spokesperson Barbara Jacobson, ‘but especially in the light of continuing news about the failure of the private sector in delivering public services.’

The One Barnet programme of privatisation was unlawfully pushed through by the Barnet Council. The two massive contracts, together worth over £1 billion, were signed on 6 August, and Capita formally takes over 70% of Barnet public services on 1 September. From then on Barnet will be known as Capitaville, delivering a body blow to local democracy.

To mourn the loss of our public services and the threat to our democracy, and to show Capita that it is not welcome here, Barnet Alliance for Public Services is holding a funeral procession on Saturday, 31 August.

Where: Meeting at the car park of Sainsbury’s Golders Green (Finchley Road, across the road from Golders Green bus/tube station).The procession will go north along Finchley Road, Regents Park Road, Ballards Lane and High Road until it reaches The Spires in High Barnet.

When: Saturday, 31 August, 11 am; Stops (subject to change): 1:30 Finchley Central, 2:30 North Finchley, 3:30 Whetstone, 4:00 New Barnet, 5:00 The Spires High Barnet

[ENDS]

1. ‘Nine spectacular council outsourcing failures’, Alan Whie and Kate Belgrave, New Statesman, http://www.newstatesman.com/uk-politics/2013/08/nine-spectacular-council-outsourcing-failures

2. See http://barnetalliance.org/2013/08/11/in-reply-the-truth/

3. At the first hearing of Maria Nash’s application for a Judicial Review of Barnet Council’s ‘One Barnet’ privatisation programme, Lord Justice Underhill, reviewing the evidence, concluded: “the Council never set out to consult about its outsourcing programme at all”, failing in its duty under s.3(2) of the Local Government Act 1999. This judgment was not altered by the Court of Appeal.

4. Barnet Council’s One Barnet programme includes the letting of two large contracts: Capita has been chosen to run the New Support and Customer Services Organisation (NSCSO), worth at least £320 million over 10 years and advertised in the Official Journal of the European Union as worth between £600 and £750 million, and Capita Symonds has been chosen to run Development and Regulatory Services (DRS) in a contract worth £275 million over 10 years.

5. Barnet Alliance for Public Services (BAPS) is a coalition of residents, trade unionists and community campaigners in the London Borough of Barnet, formed to defend and improve public services.

Contact: Barnet Alliance tel: 07807 556161/07534 407703 – http://barnetalliance.org; [email protected]; @barnetalliance