10:04am Wednesday 21st October 2009
By Alex Hayes
THE leader of Barnet Council Mike Freer went on national radio this morning to defend the new easyCouncil model ahead of an important decision on the future of council services tonight.
Cllr Freer appeared on Radio 4's Today show and was quizzed about the Future Shape plans, which would see householders being able to choose the levels of service they receive for non-essential things like waste collection.
Cabinet members will vote tonight on whether to adopt phase two of the scheme.
He was joined in the debate by Matthew Taylor, the chief executive of the Royal Society of Arts, a charity which encourages principled social progress.
He said of the plans: “If you're on a train in second class and you have a nice seat you do not mind so much people are paying for first class, but you feel somewhat differently if you're sitting in a corridor next to an overflowing toilet.
“So if the Barnet plan is implemented in the context of lots of cuts then many of the fine aspects of the plan might not be delivered.”
He added in the long term it was a “convincing” strategy, but in the short-term he is not convinced there will be savings. He added it is the “future of local government”.
Cllr Freer countered: “If the debate is just about where the cuts fall then we've got the debate wrong.
“Barnet has to continue this relentless drive for efficiency that means the core services remain good, but what it does mean is that universal provision has to change.
“We have to deliver our services in a very different way. As a council we spend millions of pounds keeping people in poverty, keeping people in bad housing, keeping people with bad house, keeping people with poor education results.
“What we have to do is make sure the money we do have is personalised to those people so we break that cycle whilst the core services of what the council's here to do continue.”
What do you think of the plans? Leave your comments below.
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