Is this the most expensive public convenience in Britain?

The other day I blogged about the Leicester Mercury report revealing that Harborough District Council is paying contractors £53,000 a year (not including Labour costs) to clean the public conveniences on the Commons car park in Market Harborough.

The Harborough Mail also has the story:

in just 20 minutes the Mail was able to obtain estimates for the same job from three separate cleaning firms, all of which came in at under £25,000, based on a full-time cleaner working seven days-a-week.

A director of one of the firms, who asked to remain anonymous, described the £53,000 figure as ‘horrendous’ while another said it would be a ‘dream contract’.

What would be a fair figure? Judge for yourself. The Commons loos are shows in the photograph above.

When, in an earlier life, I was a member of Harborough District Council myself, it seemed to be generally well regarded. If I met someone socially who had had business dealings with the council, I was usually told that is was efficient and good to work with.

So it pains me to see the council turning into a bit of a joke. The words of "a council spokesman", as quoted in the Harborough Mail, say it all - "The cleansing cost of £53,000 for the Commons Car Park toilets/baby changing facilities is straight from the contract as the tendered figure. This is the amount that the contractor put in the tender to provide the specified service."

Or does this accurately reflect the powerlessness of a small district council when faced with a large private contractor?

The Harborough Mail also quotes someone from the Taxpayers' Alliance. This is not a group I have a lot of time for - I am a taxpayer and they have never consulted me.

Still, it is amusing to see Harborough Tories fall foul of another of its natural supporters. They were attacked by Conservative Home and the Daily Mail when they cancelled an appearance in town by Father Christmas and his reindeer because it had snowed.

Please add your own elf and safety joke here.

Harborough Tories flush away £1000 a week cleaning one public convenience

Last summer, despite a public outcry, the Conservative-run Harborough District Council closed the public lavatories in St Mary's Place, Market Harborough to save £15,000.

Today the Leicester Mercury reports that the council is paying contractors £53,000 a year to clean the town's other public conveniences on the Commons car park. That does not include the cost of labour.

This was discovered by Lib Dem councillor Barbara Johnson, who told the Mercury she was "staggered" by the amount:

"The Focsa charge for the Commons toilets is an eye-watering amount which does not include routine maintenance.

"I would clean the lavatories myself for a lot less than a £1,000 a week. I cannot understand how they could possibly cost so much to clean."

Long-standing readers will be familiar with Focsa and the company's rather eventful relationship with Harborough District Council in recent years.

Barbara Johnson wrote to the council seeking an explanation for these extraordinary costs. She was told in a reply from its deputy chief executive that:

The cleansing cost of £53,000 for the Commons car park toilets is straight from the contract as the tendered figure.

There is no breakdown of the figure. This is the amount the contractor put in the tender to provide the specified service.

A council spokesman also told the Mercury that he could not give a breakdown of the cost or say how often the toilets are cleaned. The newspaper quotes him as saying:

This figure includes costings for an attendant to oversee cleanliness, materials and all chemicals, supplies and equipment for cleaning.

To which Barbara Johnson replies:

"It can't include employment costs because they are accounted elsewhere at just £100 a week.

"They must be using some pretty expensive cleaning materials."

Whether the council is stonewalling or has simply been taken for a ride remains to be seen. Liberal England is on the case.

Harborough Tories: The writing is on the wall

Trenchant stuff from the Harborough Mail:

Under pressure Harborough District Council is facing flak on three different fronts as public anger with the authority grows.

The level of dissatisfaction with the council hit a new low this week as placard-waving protesters announced they will take to the streets of the town centre this Saturday to campaign against the council's recent unpopular decision to close public toilets at the Market Hall.

It comes on the back of another deepening row this week as councillors on both sides of the political spectrum took umbrage at the way its chief executive Sue Smith announced possible spending cuts for the 2011/12 budget.

And apparently the paper has more developments in the Focsa saga too.

Harborough District Council, I need hardly add, is currently run by the Conservatives.

Latest twist in the Harborough Focsa saga

The Harborough Mail tells us that Harborough District Council's head of legal services has written to councillors saying that that Focsa is "in breach of its £26.5m, seven-year contract".

This is because the company does not have planning permission for a depot "within or adjacent to the Harborough district" from which to run its waste collection operation.

On the other hand, at least Focsa now has a contract to be in breach of.

Leaked email from Tory council leader appears in Harborough Mail

The impression that all is not sweetness and light within the ruling Tory group on Harborough District Council has been strengthened by the appearance of a leaked email in the Harborough Mail.

The email was written by the Conservative leader of the council, Cllr Michael Rook, just before the controversy over Harborough's handling of its waste management service was featured on the East Midlands regional segment of the BBC's Politics Show (that report is no longer available via iPlayer).

Ironically, the email was an attempt to keep the matter out of the press. Rook wrote to his fellow councillors:

No member of our Group will make a statement to any member of the press or media about this issue, whether Ward Member or simply interested member, portfolio party or town representative, without first talking to Jannette Ackerley [another Tory councillor] or I (sic).

I don't know if the email was leaked by one of Rook's fellow Tory councillors who resented being treated like this, but well done to the Harborough Mail for reproducing it in full.

Harborough waste collection story on The Politics Show

As I reported a few days ago, on Sunday the controversy over Harborough District Council's handling of its waste collection contractors Focsa was the subject of a report on the East Midlands version of The Politics Show.

The report has no new revelations, but it confirms that situation is as it has been presented on this blog. You can watch it on BBC iPlayer for the next few days. The report begins at around 43:30.

The interviewees include local Lib Dem councillors Sarah Hill and Phil Knowles, Alex Blackwell from the Harborough Mail and our MP Edward Garnier, who is guardedly critical of the way the Conservative-run council has handled the matter. Displaying its usual cack-handed touch, the council refused to put up anyone to be interviewed.

There are also some nice shots of the converted corset factory that houses the council offices and the council chamber where I used to speak for the people of Market Harborough North Ward.

My old friend Phil Knowles is also the subject of a longer studio interview at the end of the report. That is not a Leicestershire accent, by the way: he comes from Dudley.

Focsa denied planning permission for waste depot in Great Bowden

You may recall that Focsa the firm which collects the waste for Harborough District Council, has been operating a depot in Great Bowden without planning permission.

Today the Harborough Mail website has the news that the firm's retrospective planning application has been turned down by Leicestershire County Council. The newspaper suggests that the firm may now look at a new site on the A6 near Kibworth.

Meanwhile, there are still serious questions about the Harborough District Council's handling of waste collection in the district to be answered.

Harborough Tories block scrutiny of waste contract

You may remember that it transpired last month that Harborough District Council had been breaking its own rules by allowing its waste collectors Focsa to operate without a signed contract and without a bank bond indemnifying the council against any loss should it go out of business.

Now, reports the Harborough Mail:

A scrutiny panel meeting to discuss Harborough District Council's controversial decision to enter into a £25.9million waste contract without it being properly signed or backed by a bank bond is being delayed due to the General Election.

A briefing note was sent to district councillors and officers last Wednesday saying the scrutiny meeting scheduled for April 29 would now be postponed due to the 'purdah' period.

Purdah, more commonly-known as the pre-election period, is a term used in UK politics to describe the time between an announced election and the final election result. During the period, civil servants have to abide by a strict code of practice so they are not seen to be acting in any way party-politically.

This sounds very odd to me.

I am happy to be corrected, but as I read this briefing note from the House of Commons the period of purdah during a general election it applies only to national government. Local authorities do recognise a period of purdah, but only during their own local elections.

There are no local elections this year in Harborough.

So is the Conservative-run Harborough District Council finding tenuous grounds for postponing examination of its conduct for fear it will embarrass the party during the general election? I think we should be told.

You will also note that a meeting at County Hall to discuss Focsa's planning application for its depot in Welham Lane, Great Bowden - yes, they have been operating without planning permission too - was disrupted when the fire alarm was set off.

Remarkably convenient. That's all I will say.

Tory-run Harborough in trouble with Audit Commission

The Harborough Mail reports that the Audit Commission is to launch an investigation into the Tory-run district council's waste collection contract.

Last November it emerged that the council has allowed the waste disposal company Focsa to open a depot on the edge of Great Bowden without planning permission. By coincidence or not, the Tory group leader, who represented the ward affected, resigned at the same time. The Liberal Democrats won the subsequent by-election with a crunching majority.

Now comes news that Harborough District Council has been breaking its own rules by allowing Focsa to operate without a signed contract and without a bank bond indemnifying the council against any loss should it go out of business.

The Harborough Mail report says:

Eric Ludlow, a spokesman for the Audit Commission, said: "The Audit Commission and its appointed auditors take seriously any suggestion that an organisation has significantly breached its financial procedures. The district auditor with responsibility for Harborough Council will consider the concerns that have been raised and will report to the council in due course. I can confirm that we have received information expressing concerns about Harborough Council's arrangements for sealing its environmental services contract."

Ros Scott visits Market Harborough

I was down in London at the time, but Ros Scott visited Market Harborough last week.

We took her to see the Focsa depot at Great Bowden. We know how to give a girl a good time up here.

Great Bowden public meeting on Focsa depot

I could not make the public meeting on the new Focsa depot in Great Bowden. According to the Harborough Mail, I was not the only one who was missing:

More than 120 people attended a meeting at Great Bowden Church Hall on Tuesday night to discuss the issue but representatives from Focsa and the council declined to attend.

The hall echoed with groans as meeting chairman, Harborough Lib Dem group chief Phil Knowles, revealed the council's deputy chief executive Kamal Mehta would not be attending.

The council said afterwards this was because the meeting was organised by a political party – the Lib Dems – and it was not appropriate for impartial officers to attend.

But Welham Lane resident Pete Goold said at the meeting it had been jointly organised with residents and was not political.

Mr Knowles added: "This has got nothing to do with politics. We have involved our MP, a Conservative, and Kevin Feltham [a Tory county councillor]. It has denied people the chance to have their questions answered."

The meeting did learn something remarkable though:

The meeting also heard from Roger Clarke, Focsa's former landlord at Pebble Hall Farm, Theddingworth, who said Focsa had been asked to leave his site after it placed increasing demands on the farm.

Focsa moved onto the farm in April after it took over the district council's waste contract from Veolia. Focsa did not have planning permission at that site either and submitted a retrospective application to Northants County Council.

All of which makes this Harborough Mail report from earlier in the year interesting:

Firefighters were called out to another blaze at Harborough District Council's recycling facility.

Fire crews from Harborough were called out to Pebble Hall Farm off the A4304 Lutterworth Road in Theddingworth at about 3pm on Thursday (May 7).

They arrived to find about 700 tonnes of compostable material on fire.

It is the third time in just over a month that firefighters have attended the site.

I sense that this story will run and run.

Tory leader of Harborough DC resigns his seat

We live in exciting times here in Market Harborough.

From the Harborough Mail:

The embattled former Harborough Council leader who resigned yesterday has criticised opponents for "questioning his personal integrity".

Shockwaves reverberated through Harborough District Council yesterday (Thursday, Oct 29) as councillors heard of the unexpected resignation of its leader Alistair Swatridge.

Councillors received an email from chief executive Sue Smith saying Cllr Swatridge would be stepping down as both leader and as a ward councillor for Great Bowden.

In fact, Swatridge's ward is Great Bowden and Arden, which means it covers a large part of the old Market Harborough North ward, which (hem, hem) used to elect me.

Still, the Great Bowden part is interesting because it has just emerged that the Tory-run Harborough District Council has allowed a waste disposal company to open a new depot just outside the village without telling the residents:

Angry residents have accused a waste contractor of underhand tactics after it moved to a new depot on the edge of a village – without warning and despite not having planning permission.

The Mail reported last week that Harborough District Council's waste contractor Focsa had submitted plans to relocate from a farm near Theddingworth to a new site in Welham Lane, outside Great Bowden.

But many village residents were left shocked and angry after the firm moved into the site late last week and began operating before the planning application had even been considered by the district council.

In view of that, the forthcoming by-election should be a very interesting one to fight.

I imagine the local Tories will feel that Mr Swatridge has dumped on them from a great height. Equally, his resignation statement suggests the local Conservatives are at each other's throats.

Interesting times.