A tale about contacting the Council
Never let it be said that the Council don't respond to emails eventually. It appears that one poor resident in Thamesmead had become so fed up with the fact that their street had not been cleaned for over three weeks, and the grass had not been cut for three months meaning it was two foot high, that they finally contacted the Council by email to report it.
The Council, as many will know, promise to respond to these sort of complaints within 24 hours. Two days later and the resident had still had no reply even though they had CC'd elected representatives from the London Assembly and Parliament as well, presumably with the hope of scaring the Council into action.
The resident decided to email the Council again, this time CC'ing us in their message. Lo' and God said let there be life in the Town Hall! Literally within a matter of two hours the Council responded. Sadly the response was that they would respond to the residents complaint in 15 days.
Nothing was said about the street cleaning or the grass.
The Council, as many will know, promise to respond to these sort of complaints within 24 hours. Two days later and the resident had still had no reply even though they had CC'd elected representatives from the London Assembly and Parliament as well, presumably with the hope of scaring the Council into action.
The resident decided to email the Council again, this time CC'ing us in their message. Lo' and God said let there be life in the Town Hall! Literally within a matter of two hours the Council responded. Sadly the response was that they would respond to the residents complaint in 15 days.
Nothing was said about the street cleaning or the grass.
posted by greenwich.watch at 3:16 pm
4 Comments:
Its normal for councils to do a 'holding' reply to buy them a bit of time so they can actually figure an answer.
A good way to get a quicker response is to go thru your local councillor or MP (if they're of the helpful variety). When a councillor makes an enquiry the council will jump a lot quicker. Most councils have a policy which means they have to respond to councillors or MPs a lot quicker than tenants and residents.
The query HAS TO COME FROM the councillor or MP, if they're just CC'd then they'll still treat it as a query from a resident and leave it to fester.
Seems though, that CC'ing greenwichwatch trumps the lot!!
Hardly surprising. The Cleansweep service is a joke and ward councillors just don't care, I have tried copying them in before but it doesn't help. The service also mysteriously loses submissions, saying it has no record of them, or often the job is closed on the system even though it actually hasn't been cleaned.
I think the councils' policy towards Thamesmead is that if you ignore it, it will go away.
Strange - whenever I email (perhaps that's the secret) Cleansweep, they appear within 48 hours. My latest example is that I emailed around lunchtime on 26th about a dumped mattress - it had gone by the following morning.
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