Dan

Sorry, but that’s just lukewarm, Dan.

If a council officer responds to my enquiry – after I’ve taken time and trouble to do posts, even make a video highlighting a problem, then I expect a reasonable response.

And that’s leaving aside the other two outstanding issues, in neither of which was the question read, understood or clearly even considered important.

Instead, six months later, I get ‘Wrong location’. Now I’m expected to take time out, phone the council, have meetings, faff around because internal communications at the organisation you work for are so broken. If we were to hold a meeting, could I invoice WMBC for the time? Since I’d clearly be rectifying a management issue, I’d expect a management consultant’s hourly rate.

Several times in the last couple of years, I’ve entered Walsall Council consultations or talking shops and spent valuable time, in which I’ve been assured my opinion counts. Not one has brought positive change. I’m at the stage now where I advertise such stuff here with a very heavy heart, as I know I’m effectively encouraging people to waste their time.

We pay council tax and expect reasonable service. Trying to turn this into something about individual officers is just lame – Steve responded to my enquiry and I’ll call him out on it, because frankly, the answers Steve gave are remarkably poor.

To add to the irony, I’m invited to phone, have meetings – in an email not even sent to me, but to a reader who’s had the decency to post it up here. There’s one of your comms issues, right there.

It’s well known amongst councillors and people familiar with the council that virtually the only way to get stuff done with roads is to contact Kate, which is unfair on her. She does work incredibly hard and seems to be carrying an entire department. I have a huge amount of respect for the lady and feel rather embarrassed taking problems to her which should be adequately processed by the system, but if not taken directly to Kate, are simply prevaricated over at best or forgotten at worst.

Potholes are WMBC’s responsibility, as are gullies. I understand very well that sewerage is not. Water cannot enter sewers, however, if the gullies are full of silt and never cleared. Further, if gullies are allowed to silt up, that in turn will silt up the sewers, and I’d be very surprised if ST didn’t seek recourse for that. Drain cleaning seems to have almost totally ceased in Walsall and I’d like to know why.

The fact that these are safety issues seems to be completely lost.

I appreciate your responding here out of hours and I bear you no ill will whatsoever – but I’m at my wit’s end. It’s not as if I make a continual stream of complaints.

With the best will in the world

Bob

I hate to invoke the ‘I pay council tax’ cliche, but here I feel it’s appropriate. It’s getting to the point where folk just don’t bother reporting issues anymore, because it’s so damned hard in a lot of cases to get any action. As residents of the borough, we have a right to expect decent standards or road maintenance, and I think it’s reasonable to expect responses to sensible questions when stuff isn’t fixed. Nobody is being victimised here, but I’ll be buggered if I’m going to jump through anymore hoops.

It wouldn’t be so bad, if the approach was consistent, but it isn’t. The pothole existing since last weekend on Anchor Bridge was filled immediately, yet repeated requests for the rest of the High Street cavities seem to go unheeded.

I’m very grateful to Warren and Dan for getting involved. However, I think that if the communications people want to reduce the ire and antipathy that exists to their authority, one of the best ways is to communicate effectively. Something seems to have gone very wrong in that respect.