Help save Finsbury Park from the Council

Sad news from http://thefriendsoffinsburypark.org.uk that they're fundraising for a judicial review of the Council's decision to turn our green spaces into 'commercial surfaces'.

That is should come to this. The way the Council behave is one of the many reasons the Friends deserve support - a principle is at stake here that affects all of us, for ever. 

The two parts of the council - the politicians and the 'executive' (the civil servants who do the actual work) have gone into business to raise money to offset the vicious, ideological  central government cuts, even though 'austerity' does more harm than good. The Council trample all over our green spaces to earn cash and use 'commercial confidentiality' to hide the detail - it's done at our expense because, presumably, we are an easy target.

They conduct the 'business' of renting out our green spaces in a businesslike way - in secret for fear of competition - who are they competing with?  If we knew the detail, would they lose money?  They do not want to give away any information at all if they can help it. Whereas they have published some contracts, they hold 'big' ones in 'commercial confidentiality'. They refuse to open up the books to justify their claim that the profit is ring fenced. They count success as the amount of money raised and offset any 'damage' out of the profits, trying to get away with paying the least.

Our politicians and civil servants seem to have a default position - 'trust me'. We used to, but we gradually discovered the extent of the abuse of power.  So now, we don't.

The thing is, the council is not a business. It is part of the public sector, where different rules need to apply. If councils were businesses, there would not be any public services at all and business would wind up. Business needs public services to operate and profit from. They need employees who are independent, creative lifelong learners connected to the community in social groups who exercise democratic control. They need a well-organised pluralist society with educated people, great infrastructure and the least inequality deliverable. If all business has to feed on are obedient cattle, they race to the bottom, beaten by cheaper countries.

If business could provide the minimum public service needed to make money, they would, but they can't. They can't afford the long time custodianship of our resources, the investment needed in our education and transport systems etc - we, the public, are the only ones who can club together to progress that and we can only do that through government, nationally and locally. We, the public, are the only ones able to prioritise our interests above theirs.

The right-wing shrinks the state and abandons regulation in favour of business in ways they hope impossible to reverse. The left wing can change the right, get them to support the National Health Service, gender-neutral marriage etc, but it requires continuous support from the 'silent majority', not just 'stuffing their mouths with gold'.

You have a choice - hope that some of the offshore wealth 'trickles down' to you, or resist changes that do those around you harm today and for generations to come. Use it or lose it.

Everything possible done in the open.

Openness and transparency should be a right (not a privilege) - the Council are acting on our our behalf, in our name. They work for us and we outnumber them!

We can oblige the Council to open up their 'business' activities to public scrutiny. Then they can act as they ought - as advisors to the public, representative of a common will to implement beneficial change, not masters of their own private casino at our expense. We need to be able to look over their shoulders because we know that, if we don't, they can do us all harm. They should accept that, if they try to do business, they play by public rules.

Business will tell you that they need secrecy but the government do not agree.  Last year the coalition came up with a transparency code that clearly states that commercial confidentiality does no measurable good and should not be used by Councils. It states that Councils should insert specific clauses into contracts stating that commercial confidentiality does not apply. Our Council signed up to the code but do not use it. They could.

The culture of secrecy has led the Council to refuse to answer the straightforward questions put politely by people like the Friends over the years as to the devil in the detail.  

It feels to me like a huge cognitive disconnect - the politicians are irretrievably mired in the 'it's our job, not yours' and 'we know what's good for you' and 'you don't need to know that, leave it to us' mantras but the civil servants seem more intransigent. They fancy their chances at using the special protections given to business whilst still inside the public sector - what could possibly go wrong?

Analyse this

A measure of how open the council is? The amount of data they make available to the public. When you think of all the databases the Council maintain, you begin to realise the scope for transparency in an age where it's possible to preserve everything at almost zero cost and make it searchable. Openness serves another vital function - quality.

I want to be enabled to see every relevant public sector email and consult every database myself (with a few, rare exceptions such as human resources). It can be done.

Among London councils, Haringey are lagging behind others in providing 'open data'. Yes, they are getting round to publishing how much they spend every month (because we obliged them to) but little else.  Other Councils have opened up a huge amount and are leading the way.  Redbridge to name but one, have begun to publish much more 'open' data - still a fraction, but better. Now that our Council has merged it's IT Department with others, the time is right, but will they do it?

Time for Haringey to come clean. Not just for the Friends but for all the many activities they embark on in our name. This website features campaigns all over the borough where local groups of people oppose what the council do - if only they knew what the Council know! I'm not asking for an advantage, I'm asking for a level playing field, not an uneven one.

Please support the Friends fundraising for a judicial review so as to show the Council that there are some things they can do to us whether we like it or not, and some they can't.