Wednesday 16 September 2009

EasyCouncil Wardens Grounded by High Court injunction



The Guardian reports that Barnet Council has been served with a High Court injunction preventing it from removing warden services, pending a Judicial Review. The paper describes the decision as a major setback for Mike Freer’s easyCouncil plans.

By Robert Booth

A London council that launched a cost-cutting drive inspired by no-frills airlines has been served with an injunction to stop it ending live-in wardens for older people in sheltered housing.

Mr Justice Silber, sitting in the high court, has ordered Conservative-controlled Barnet to take no further steps to remove residential wardens from 52 sites across the borough, pending a possible judicial review. The challenge by a group in the sheltered housing could be widened to include 50 other councils where similar cuts are proposed.

Residents in Bradford, Bristol, Scarborough, Exeter and Evesham have signed up to be part of further high court actions as local authorities face a crisis in public finances which could wipe £26bn off council budgets by 2013, according to the Institute of Fiscal Studies.

The order against Barnet is a setback to the reforms proposed by the council leader, Mike Freer, seen as a test of wider Conservative policy should David Cameron win the next general election. The council wants a basic service and charges for anything more sophisticated.

"People have got off their backsides and are getting involved in this issue," said David Young, 78, chairman of the UK Pensioners' Strategy Committee, which got the injunction so they can keep their wardens instead of the offered alternative of "floating" wardens to cover several sites from next year. Young said: "This affects 500,000 old people across the country."

The group's claim is that Barnet has acted unlawfully by ignoring the terms of the residents' tenancy agreements, its duties under the disability discrimination act, and the effect on tenants, particularly those who are disabled.
www.guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media 2009

3 comments:

baarnett said...

To Blog Owner...........

Please have a look at
http://tinyurl.com/hendon23Sept

regarding a lobby at Hendon Town Hall next week, about the five-billion-pound plans for Brent Cross.

We want to get the Secretary of State to call in the planning application.

If you approve of the sentiments, please consider blogging about the subject - after looking at the links within the above web page.

Thanks

Rog T said...

David,

I met David Young at the lobby when the cabinet approved the warden cuts.

My advice to Mike Freer would be to think again. If you've gone to war with people like Mr Young, you really have lost the plot

Don't Call Me Dave said...

Baarnett

I will be blogging out Cricklewood very soon!