6 August (Part 2) - Cops and complaints
I referred to
the need to write to the Met Police’s Directorate of Professional Standards
again a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to complain about their decision to refer
the complaint to Commissioner Hogan-Howe
back to Bexleyheath for investigation by officers junior to Borough Commander Stringer who I believe
attempted to cover up Bexley council’s homophobic hate crime. Both Elwyn Bryant
and I signed the complaint and Elwyn who has had his fingers burned with
Recorded Delivery before, insisted I send it ‘registered’ and it cost me
£5·90 at Abbey Wood main Post Office on 21st July.
This morning Elwyn decided to use the tracking number on the web. That and an
unhelpful Royal Mail employee told him that they had no trace of the letter on
their system because their scanner was broken and it was more than likely the
guaranteed next day delivery item was still languishing at Fulham Sorting Office.
I then rang the Directorate of Professional Standards on the HQ phone number they had given
me, 020 8785 8666, to see if they had received the letter. After listening to a variety of messages
I was connected to the final one which said they were open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Monday to Friday but there was no facility to speak to anyone. How mad and unreasonable
can these publicly funded outfits get? The Post Office says they have no way of checking
if our letter is at Fulham or not and the DPS won’t answer the phone.
On my way out of the house at 12:20 I noticed that all my post was stuck under
the windscreen wiper of a car parked at the end of my drive. Since Belvedere
Sorting Office closed down postmen have come from as far afield as Gravesend and
as late as 17:50 and now we have one too lazy to walk up the drive. The sooner
someone buys out the last of our industrial dinosaurs the better.