5 September (Part 1) - It’s not only Bexley Council that is Bonkers
My bin tax reminder was delivered today after apparently spending twelve days in the care of UKMail.
As already reported Bexley Council is encouraging payment
by Direct Debit by offering a £1·50 discount on the standard £33. Extra bins
cost £30 and it occurred to me that close neighbours could get together and save
a few quid by sharing bin capacity, on the other hand I have had experience of
getting neighbours to cough up what they owe so I gave the idea a miss.
As expected you can sign up on line and the address is
www.bexley.gov.uk/gws but a fat lot
of good it did me. Bexley’s webpage responded by telling me I didn’t have a bin subscription.
How come I was sent a reminder?
I called the phone number and was answered by Bexley’s voice recognition
software. It twice told me that it didn’t recognise the phrase “Garden Waste
Service” and connected me to the Contact Centre. The system gave me GBH of the Ear ’Ole (a loud high pitched piano noise)
but when someone responded seven or eight minutes later, all was well.
It
is debatable whether or not the experience was better of worse than signing up to
Anne Firth’s Just Giving page
but what I can say is that the website works even though it might ask more questions than I anticipated.
In case you didn’t know, the one time Erith and Thamesmead Parliamentary
Candidate is going to attempt to climb the North Face of the Eiger or some such
equally foolhardy exercise.
She, her husband Edward, and assorted friends and colleagues aim to raise £4,810 for
MIND, the mental health charity. Most appropriate if you ask me.
Anna didn’t create a big enough avalanche of votes in E&T in 2015 but
she helped set off a big one
on the 23rd June. Isn’t one more than sufficient for just one year?