|
|
 |
| |
Housing Patrol service is lined up for privatisation
• CAMDEN Council has decided to outsource your Housing Patrol service to private security firms.
Housing Patrol are the only out-of-hours service which operates seven days a week and responds to your calls to deal with anti-social behaviour, trespassers, drug users on your estate, noise nuisance, tenancy checks, flooding and other emergencies.
The officers working for Housing Patrol are very professional and well trained, with a background in youth and community work. They are required to face situations that can include dealing with children as young as six to vulnerable elderly tenants. In the last few years, members of this service have won Camden awards for their outstanding performance. The Housing Patrol has been serving you for more than 30 years.
However in an attempt to save money Camden Council is in a process of privatising this section without properly consulting the tenants and leaseholders who pay for this service. The Town Hall bosses are in the process of putting it out to tender so whichever private security firm can run this service in the cheapest possible way and make profit will win the contract. Senior managers are already using inexperienced security guards provided by a company. These guards are being sent out to deal with situations in Camden where they have no experience or training and which are normally dealt with by professional housing staff. The surprising factor is that Camden Council does not see fit to fully consult or inform the residents of Camden which this is going to have serious effect on and who are actually paying for this service directly through their rent or service charge.
The result of this money-saving scheme will be that these security guards, whose only experience may have been working in stores or building sites, will have access to residents’ personal information, knocking on your doors and taking up sensitive issues such as dealing with your children, elderly tenants, or tenants suffering from mental health illnesses.
Town Hall bosses don’t seem to care about that as long as they can save few pounds – so what if it affects the residents?
Only recently in order to save a few pounds in phone bills, the Housing Patrol staff were pressured by new management to pass callers’ personal information through a radio system. However the housing officers and their union, in order to protect a caller’s identity being disclosed, opposed this strongly and managed to make management reverse their decision. If they are really serious about saving money, they should take back the massive pay rises that top managers got last year, not cut services.
The decision to outsource your Housing Patrol service will be rubber-stamped on December 12 unless councillors know that there is opposition to this. You, the residents of Camden, should decide who you want to provide your services and have a say on how your money is spent – not the fat cat bosses in the Town Hall who do not care and will not be affected by this change.
LIZ WHEATLEY
UNISON Steward, Hampstead District Housing Office
|
 |
|
| |
|
|
|
