In the overview and scrutiny committee in July, Harrow council chief executive Sean Harriss said “the pandemic has exacerbated this issue (access to the council) as there used to be staff who could help residents face to face in the Civic Centre help access services that were only online.
“The turbulence of demand caused by lockdowns had also overwhelmed the system. What had been planned was for the number of access points to be expanded within the Borough’s libraries, to help meet demand and provide better access to services”.
Along with such short-comings in accessing the council, another reason which can’t be pinned on the pandemic, is that Harrow council seems to be systematically distancing its relevant officers from the community, more so in the people services directorate. This has not been addressed.
The restricted access to the council for the help and support compounds by certain features on the council’s less than helpful website which are not fully equipped to handle particular issues that residents have.
Mr Harriss had somewhat different focus on the website issues: “though certain aspects of this service could be improved there were challenges during the pandemic that required Council Staffs’ capabilities that ultimately hindered other services, such as delivering business grants during the pandemic” he said.
Harrow council claims to have distributed £62m in government grants to over 900 local businesses, but has failed to provide a list of the businesses who received the grant, despite a freedom of information request by a resident. This has raised questions about the Harrow council transparency in money matters!
The concerns in accessing the council become more tense considering Mr Harriss alert about how far into the future the Council could be affected by the Covid-19 pandemic in its day-to-day work.
“It would affect the Council’s work over the next 9 to 12 months. Work would be impacted in a number of different ways, and it was believed that there would be extreme pressure during the winter months. There could also be a significant spike in unemployment, housing could be seen as challenge for the future as well as pressures in social care” alerted Mr Harriss.
“The turbulence of demand caused by lockdowns had also overwhelmed the system. What had been planned was for the number of access points to be expanded within the Borough’s libraries, to help meet demand and provide better access to services”.
Along with such short-comings in accessing the council, another reason which can’t be pinned on the pandemic, is that Harrow council seems to be systematically distancing its relevant officers from the community, more so in the people services directorate. This has not been addressed.
The restricted access to the council for the help and support compounds by certain features on the council’s less than helpful website which are not fully equipped to handle particular issues that residents have.
Mr Harriss had somewhat different focus on the website issues: “though certain aspects of this service could be improved there were challenges during the pandemic that required Council Staffs’ capabilities that ultimately hindered other services, such as delivering business grants during the pandemic” he said.
Harrow council claims to have distributed £62m in government grants to over 900 local businesses, but has failed to provide a list of the businesses who received the grant, despite a freedom of information request by a resident. This has raised questions about the Harrow council transparency in money matters!
The concerns in accessing the council become more tense considering Mr Harriss alert about how far into the future the Council could be affected by the Covid-19 pandemic in its day-to-day work.
“It would affect the Council’s work over the next 9 to 12 months. Work would be impacted in a number of different ways, and it was believed that there would be extreme pressure during the winter months. There could also be a significant spike in unemployment, housing could be seen as challenge for the future as well as pressures in social care” alerted Mr Harriss.
Harrow Monitoring Group 