Richard Baum

Last night was another meeting of the Resource and Performance Scturiny Panel. And even though I was detained at the Peugeot garage having to sign more forms than it takes to become a US citizen, nothing could keep me away.

The main item on the agenda was the Disabled Facilities Grant review. This was a review of the systems in place to provide things like easy-entry showers and stair-lifts for people with mobility difficulties, to help them stay in their homes.

Lots of work went into the review from the officers delivering a much-needed service, and their efforts are to be commended. But the service is one of the slowest in the country. On average, from a query being raised to the point of completion, it takes almost a year and a half to complete the repairs. This is about double the average and needs to come down.

There was a loooong grilling about plans to create an advisory agency to assist applicants for disabled facilities grants. Lots of issues were raised about the quality of service and the action plan to improve it. This action plan is based heavily on the decision to use Bury’s housing management organisation Six Town Housing as the providers of the advisory agency, rather than go out to tender for it. Tendering would take time, but we may end up with a better provider. I led the charge questioning the wisdom of this decision. We don’t want speed to get the better of common sense here, a la Butterstile Children’s Centre, where the possibility of a facility in Rainsough has been rejected because of the need to spend the government’s money before an arbitrary deadline.

So once again it seems as if the need for speed beats the need for common sense. At Butterstile, we have decided to build a Children’s Centre on an already crowded street far away from the communities most in need, whilst a derelict building perfect for the Centre lies vacant in Rainsough itself. And the reason is because to renovate the derelict building would take us beyond the government’s deadline. There’s no consideration of whether the facility is right for the community, just a need to get the money spent in time. No room for consultation, community involvement or even common sense. Just expenditure and waste.

And here with disabled Facilities Grants it looks as if the need to make a quick decision is more important than strategic improvements which may indeed take longer, but which will be for the benefit of the community in the long run. We need waiting times to come down, and this needs to happen quickly. But improvements need to be sustainable and the whole service has to improve. I don’t know if Six Town Housing are the best to do this – nobody does because there hasn’t been a procurement tendering process. There might be a better solution out there, but we aren’t exploring it. It’s a shame.

Rick