4 December - Will it or won’t it be emptied? Will they reply or not?
It is now 28 days since my dustbin was emptied; longer than the 24 days for
which Labour councillor Francis managed to get a
politically motivated story into the News Shopper. My guess is that because
I had so little in the bin last time the Tesco bags at the bottom weren’t
noticed. Or maybe a black sack got added overnight and removed by hand rather
than the bin being taken to the van. I did email the council via their website
and, ignoring the weekend, they replied 24 hours later with an offer to come and
collect my two Tesco bags. I declined the offer and remain someone who finds
the refuse services satisfactory - but not as good as they used to be.
The new issue of the Bexley Magazine (front cover slogan “Listening to you”.
Ha!) says that the council aims to reply to emails within two days. Some departments
have a long way to go. I emailed the council about the
traffic lights that guarded nothing but a few cones
and no road work whatever more than a week ago and have heard nothing
at all. As is only too apparent, Bexley council never answers questions which may
show them to have failed again. I followed up the email with another in which I
accepted that the delays looked as though they were the result of the
contractor’s ill-judgment, thus giving the council an easy let out. But Bexley
council is firmly in ostrich mode as it so often is.
One thing that can be said about the Bexley Magazine since the Conservatives
took over… it is no longer a blatantly political propaganda sheet and we don’t
have to endure the mugshot of Councillor Balls (the ex-Labour leader) staring
out from almost every page trying to emulate Stalin in Pravda.
P.S. The bin was emptied as I thought it would be. These guys do a
difficult job pretty well. The nine day old email is still awaiting an answer.