Andrew Dismore

Written in response to a reply received from James Cleverly AM, Chair of LFEPA on 21/08/2012

RE: AssetCo plc

Dear James,

Thank you for your letter of 21^st August

I regard your response as remarkably and unacceptably complacent.

You say:

“I am sure I do not need to remind you that it is LFEPA’s Resources Committee, on which you sit, that has the oversight responsibility for this contract.”

Indeed you do not. It is because I serve on this committee that I have raised the questions with you about the takeover of AssetCo for £2 and the security of the future of the service in the hands of this new and unknown company.

In like manner, I am sure I do not need to remind you that you are the Chair of LFEPA, appointed by Mayor Johnson, and it is with you that the buck stops.

I take note that in your letter you do not answer any of the questions I pose about the new company, including its lack of track record, its sole director, its lack of transparency, its finances, its backers, or the issues of security clearance.

You comment about the ownership of the fleet and workshops, but it is AssetCo’s responsibility, including now under its new sole owner, to deliver the service, unless and until enforcement action is taken under the contract.

As you also rightly state:

“… the Commissioner’s statement that this sale has no direct impact upon the Authority’s vehicle and equipment contract is set in the context of the serious concerns that we as an Authority already have about AssetCo’s ongoing financial stability and their performance against this contract.  These concerns are reflected in the recent decisions we took at the Authority meeting in June 2012, prior to this sale, to pursue a range of contractual remedies to ensure that this improves and the fleet replacement programme can be completed.  These decisions remain valid”.

Of course, the decisions remain valid. But it is in that context of “serious concerns” that I wrote to you.

If there are “serious concerns” about AssetCo’s ongoing performance against the contract, surely those concerns must apply equally to the new company, until they are answered?

If there are “serious concerns” about “AssetCo’s ongoing financial stability”, surely those concerns must apply equally to the new company, until they are answered?

And in this context of “serious concerns”, what is far from clear is what AssetCo will do to deliver the improvement of service or the replacement of the fleet your above quoted paragraph predicts, or indeed the continuation of the service at any level. The questions I posed and which remain unanswered are geared precisely to that end. I am amazed that you do not appear to be asking similar questions yourself, as presumably the sale of AssetCo is intended to circumvent in some way those decisions we took in June, by for example a smokescreen of delay while the new company purports to attempt to comply.

Through recent years under your predecessor as chair of LFEPA the complacency towards growing concern over underperformance by AssetCo was staggering.  Your colleague Gareth Bacon AM in April 2011 even told a GLA committee that criticisms of AssetCo by the FBU were “overblown” and that union officials had “a political axe to grind”. Unfortunately for him and you, the AssetCo chickens are now coming home to roost and he will be eating those words.

Have you met the Chairman and sole director of AB&A, Sir Aubrey Brocklebank, Bt? If so, what assurances and information about the company were given? If not when will you meet him? When will the questions I raised in my earlier letter be answered?

Yours sincerely,

Andrew Dismore

Assembly Member for Barnet andCamden