Waste collection – some collections nearly a week overdue

Council, staff were working over the weekend to reduce the accumulated waste collection backlog. An update report has not yet been published but it seems that there is still some waste on the streets of villages like Dunnington.

There one resident reported yesterday that recycling has been on the street since last Tuesday.

All in all, there seems to be something wrong with this, the most basic of public services, which cannot entirely be explained by social distancing and the COVID crisis. The Council’s web site https://www.york.gov.uk/WasteCollectionUpdates often quotes “capacity” issues and “vehicle breakdowns” as the major reasons for unreliability.

So what has senior management been doing to address the problem? Apart from ordering 12 new refuse collection vehicles, there seems to have been little by way of reaction.

The Council’s “Head of Waste” is an official called Shaun Morley. He was appointed last November but has had a very low profile since then. He describes himself as “Interim Transformation Director/Head of Waste at City of York Council”. He is also a Director of a company, SRM Waste Management, which is based in the Shetland Isles. At Company’s House his occupation is listed as “a consultant”.

Senior appointments at the Council – whether permanent or temporary – have to be recorded. We can find nothing on any Council report which explains what the current waste management structure is much less who is supposed to be responsible for what (and at what cost).

Councillors need to satisfy themselves that there is a clear line of responsibility, that key performance indicators are being monitored and that there is a transparent exception reporting process.

It seems to us that workers in the Councils waste collection activity area have generally performed well particularly over the COVID lockdown period.

It increasingly appears that this may be despite, rather than because of, senior management decisions.

Backing for York Council housing – stock transfer option to be abandoned

LibDem policy to buy more homes for rent on open market also set to be adopted

A major new report on the York Councils Housing Revenue Account is set to be debated next week.

There are two pieces of good news in it.

First the Council is set to abandon its plans to hive off its Council housing to an “Arm’s Length Management Organisation”. The justification for this always seemed very fragile and recent revelations about the way in which some of these “ALMOs” have operated would have been enough to cause a rethink. The Grenfell Towers Inquiry may reveal even more.

Now claims that the government would continue to force down Council house rents, making the housing account unviable, have proved to be groundless.

Similarly, a government threat, to make Council’s sell off high value Council Houses when they became vacant, has also been struck into the long grass.

The Council said, when it originally announced the review, that it would spend £200,000 on consultants. The report doesn’t reveal how much of that budget has been spent. Hopefully not much

Perhaps even more importantly, a Liberal Democrat policy favouring increasing the number of Council homes available in the City, is about to be adopted.

The Council will use a £20 million fund to purchase empty properties on the open market. Most of this money will come from the accumulated profit currently showing on the housing account. New “right to buy” receipts will also be used.

Some former Council houses will be repurchased while other empty properties may also be brought into use.

This was the policy so bitterly opposed by Labour when they were in office in the City between 2011 and 2015. Prices were lower then, so more might have been achieved if an initiative had been taken more quickly.

How precisely the £20m fund will be managed is unclear. Hopefully it will not be used as an excuse for a risky cavalier foray into housing development.

Full marks though to the Council’s Executive for at least trying to address the housing problems in the City.

Tory finance chief quits York Executive

Mystery surrounds consultants contract

The Conservative Councillor responsible for City finances has abruptly quit his post. The announcement came only days after the Council released details of a hitherto confidential consultancy contract.

In 2014 a small consultancy firm, run by a former City Council employee, had been awarded a contract to project manage the older person’s accommodation project. This is the programme which will see existing elderly person’s homes like the one at Oakhaven closed and replaced by larger privately run “mega homes”. Part of the programme would see elderly person’s accommodation built on the Lowfields school site.

The consultants contract was to have run from 1^st January 2015 until 31^st December 2015. The contract was extended to 31^st March 2016 with a total value of £130,000.

In response to a Freedom of Information request the Council says it does not hold any information to indicate “which Directors and Councillors were involved in the letting of the contract, and any extensions thereof” nor can they ” provide copies of all appropriate decision meeting minutes or notes – including copies of any invitation to tender adverts”!

The contract had an “output” specification. This meant that payments were made to the consultancy only when agreed targets and milestones had been met.

The Council was also asked about its current policy in engaging employees, consultants and contractors who seek to be remunerated via a private company.

They replied;“There is currently no policy which specifically deals with this question. Each assignment will be considered individually and advice is provided on the employment implications by human resources or the procurement team”.

In March 2016, the Council, now under coalition control, decided that further work was needed on the older person’s project. They decided to let a further consultancy project covering the period 31^st March 2016 – 30^th March 2018 using the services of NEPRO This is a local government “spin off” company run from Sunderland. It effectively procures and manages contracts let on behalf of local authorities.

The Council have admitted that “The decision to use NEPRO is an officer decision and was made by the Council Management Team on 7th May 2014. As this is a legally compliant framework, the terms and conditions are pre-agreed. Suppliers on the framework have already agreed to these terms and conditions, therefore no further steps were deemed necessary to ensure transparency of individual contracts agreed through the framework.

The new contract was handed to the same consultant who had held the old contract since January 2015.

It appears that no Councillors were involved in the decision nor is there any evidence that the employment of NEPRO has been reviewed during that last 3 years. It is unclear what proportion of contract costs are retained by NEPRO or indeed what value they add, in a situation where an existing contractor is simply reappointed to a role.

The new contract had a potential value of £216,000.

£54,000 was paid out in 2016 during the first 9 months of the contract.

The contract is again based on “outputs” being achieved (see below).

While output contracts can have advantages, they are an opaque system and unsuitable for activities where taxpayers opposition to proposals must be overcome before payments are released. The temptation may be to prioritise financial gain over the views of residents.

This happened with the decision to build on the Lowfields playing fields, where lobbyists were urged to influence consultation results and a, misleading, report gave the impression that the NHS had agreed to fund a new health centre on the site (see here).

It hadn’t.

The lack of engagement by senior Councillors in the contract letting process at the York Council is a concern. So is the lack of, publicly accessible, records of decisions taken about contract letting.

With spin off companies not subject to FOI regulations, this means that large sums of public money can be committed to controversial projects with minimal accountability.

Council spent £3,600 on Consultants who tried to “develop” York Cabinet

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The York Council spent around £4000 on a workshop for its Cabinet members last December.

The 2 day workshop was held in secret and no details of its objectives – or feedback on its achievements – have emerged.

A bill from Consultant John Tizard was spotted by an eagled eyed resident when she perused the Councils accounts

It is not unusual for executive committees to consider how they want to operate – and how to go about achieving objectives – at the beginning of their term of office.

But the York Cabinet is close to the end of its life and expenditure like this – and the way that it has been authorised – is open to criticism.