Waste of time (& taxpayers' money!)

[charitynjw]

I have just been to my local council offices to hand in a form. I wanted a receipt.

The receptionist told me I had to speak to one of the advisors.

"OK", says I "Can I have one of those tickets" (Part of the process to see an advisor).

Council - "The earliest I can book you in is Tuesday"

Me - "You're kidding, right! It'll only take a couple of secs"

Council - "Sorry, it's the new system"

Anyhow, apparently, if you have to supply proof of ID to supplement the form, you can be seen there & then, as they photocopy the ID & give you a receipt for it. This I did, & got them to add proof of receipt of the form as well.

What really pee'd me off was that there were 3 advisors just sitting there with no 'appointments', staring into space & just chatting to each other.

You couldn't make it up, lol!

[PAWS]

Re: Waste of time (& taxpayers' money!)

They know you cannot simply walk down the road and go to the competition and people are often afraid to complain as they wind up getting even worse service.When my local council peed me off I sent my local counsellor a fairly strongly worded email and told him if he wanted to be re-elected he had better sort it out. It worked. I am pretty vigorous telling people to vote in local, council and general elections and then I make sure those that I HAVE GIVEN A JOB do the job. Otherwise I remind them that I, as a voter, have the right to take that Job away.They need to be reminded and given plenty of work. As Voters we employ them and as tax payers we pay their wages.


In your local office their system stinks and they need to know it stinks. This is not a free service. You pay for those incompetent lazy people and their bosses. They just need reminding from time to time.

[charitynjw]

Re: Waste of time (& taxpayers' money!)

They know you cannot simply walk down the road and go to the competition and people are often afraid to complain as they wind up getting even worse service.When my local council peed me off I sent my local counsellor a fairly strongly worded email and told him if he wanted to be re-elected he had better sort it out. It worked. I am pretty vigorous telling people to vote in local, council and general elections and then I make sure those that I HAVE GIVEN A JOB do the job. Otherwise I remind them that I, as a voter, have the right to take that Job away.They need to be reminded and given plenty of work. As Voters we employ them and as tax payers we pay their wages.



In your local office their system stinks and they need to know it stinks. This is not a free service. You pay for those incompetent lazy people and their bosses. They just need reminding from time to time.

HI PAWS,

The 'front-line' staff are all employed by an outsourced private firm, who act as gatekeepers. (That includes the 'advisors')

It's almost impossible to speak to an actual council bod.

[PAWS]

Re: Waste of time (& taxpayers' money!)

Oh if you ask tospeak to anyone in any senior position at the office you will justget fobbed off.
www.writetothem.com will tell you exactly who runs your local council and how tocontact them. Just whack in your post code and all the info will comeup. Find the one you voted for and badger them.
Whether the staffare outsourced or not they are paid by council tax payers money andrepresent the people you are keeping in a cushy job.