ALL MUST GET FREEDOM, BUT SOME MORE FREEDOM THAN OTHERS

Secrecy,

scandal

and Riverside 

gobbledegook

Bizarre report.....forner Riverside boss Patrick Leonard

Ten years on, and freedom of information  is now  accepted as    a right  for everyone. But it is a  right that needs strengthening. And that strengthening is needed urgently by thousands of householders up and down the country. They have been let down by freedom of information

The Freedom of  Information Act  has  been a great success for most of us. The act, for example was used  to expose the MPs` expenses scandal a few years ` ago.

Now,  almost every day other scandals are exposed, some by the Press and some by individuals making use of the act and the

  information that  it frees.

This information, by public bodies such as local authorities has  been made  readily available to everyone.

But despite the act, many scandals remain hidden. And that is a worry for thousands of tenants and leaseholders because they get no benefit from freedom of information.

They get no benefit  because the big landlords, the housing associations   are not included in  the provisions of the act.

And housing associations just love  it that way. Because they are not included in the provisions of the act, all their activities, all their costs and charges can remain secret.

Housing associations can go merrily on, unchecked by anyone, charging what they like, doing what they like...accountable to no one but themselves.

That is the situation here in Carlisle  where the massive Liverpool  property organisation, Riverside Housing Association  charges tenants and leaseholders what it likes, installs dodgy  heating  boilers in Longtown which tenants cannot afford to turn on- so they shiver in ice box homes- closes sheltered housing homes without proper consultation and generally  goes its merry way as a profit making  property developer.

And amazingly, Riverside  has gone  further than all of that.

While the rest of us continue to enjoy the benefits of freedom of  information, Riverside, in the opinion of many people, has actively  gone out of its way to hide what it is  doing.

Riverside did this on one occasion in a unbelievable written  report by using jargon or gobbledegook  which no one  could understand.

The report was to Carlisle City Council  following an inspection of Riverside by the government`s Audit Commission.The author of the report was Mr Patrick Leonard, regional director of Riverside Carlisle.

 Mr Leonard`s report  was bizarre. It contained 35 oblique abbreviations or  jargon that none of the city councillors could understand.

These included such obscure items  as tp trackers, FTA processes, HHSRSs, and SHAIPs

 And  the report also included phrases such as: ‘develop TRG wide customer segmentation through profiling project with CACI’, and ‘carry out review of group VFM strategy to set strategic framework and approach to service reviews’.

Not surprisingly, the city councillors were critical of the report. Mr Leonard  responded by saying that he would ensure that  reports were less confusing in future.

(Mr Leonard did not write  many more reports for the city council...confusing or not confusing.

(He decided  he wanted to become the Cumbria Police and Crime Commissioner and offered himself for election as Labour candidate.

(More confusion-and other reactions- followed during the election campaign when Mr Leonard said that if elected he could combine the police commissioner`s job with his Riverside job as regional director.Mr Leonard was not elected. He resigned from Riverside a few months later.)

There was no confusion in what followed Mr Leonard`s bizarre report to the city council. The story got national attention from the influential social housing publication, Inside Housing .

Riverside refused to apologise for the report to Inside Housing saying that it was not written for the  general public. 

Riverside said: “The report is an internal action plan that was submitted as supporting information with a report to Carlisle Council’s overview and scrutiny committee and was not primarily written as a direct communication with tenants or residents.

"Riverside prides itself on ensuring that any commmunication that is written fortenants is easy to understand and written in clear English."

Easy to understand and written in clear English?

Inside Housing did not seem very impressed.So they published a quiz for readers listing the ridiculous gobbledegook and jargon used by Riverside and other housing associations

Inside Housing readers were in absolutely no doubt that they actually preferred  freedom of information to gobblegook and jargon.

Community Voice Carlisle is the blog of Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation. Information about the Federation is available on 01228 532803 or 01228 522277