The Purley Village Blog

Original Message posted 1st Mar 2010 by Neil Spellings

Is our council efficient?

Am I the only one who finds all dealings with the council slow and frustrating?
Imagine if the council was a business you purchased services from...
The business sends you a whopping bill every year whether you have made full use of their services or not. Complaints that do get responded to just result in apologies but there's absolutely no chance of a refund - not even credits against future services.
I like to think I'm a "good citizen" so frequently report issues I see out and about to the council via their "Report it" web service.
Whilst the web-based form for reporting issues like fly tipping, faulty streetlights etc is a step in the right direction that just generates an email to someone that then disappears into a black hole of council staff, contractors, sub-contractors etc.
Often you can contact the council for an update and they have no record of your original submission, so a new submission is made resulting in a duplicate somewhere else "in the system" someone needs to sort out. More wasted resources.
Here are just some more recent examples:
Blocked gully causing road to flood:Reported two months ago, still blocked.
Request for a blue recycling box: Four emails and eight months until one finally arrived.
Faulty Streelight: Two months later and still faulty..
Empty grit box: Two months later and still empty..
As someone who runs their own web hosting business, if I treated my customers like this they would immediately move to a competitor. Unfortunately the council have a monopoly over us!
If my customers have a problem, we open a support ticket for them that gets a unique tracking reference. This stays open until the customer confirms their problem has been resolved. My customers can view the status of this ticket at any time on our website, and so can our own support staff if the customer phones in for an update. Only when the problem is fixed does the ticket it get closed.
Why couldn't the council implement something similar for their "Report it" services? The software costs less then £200 and I'm sure it would pay for itself in weeks given the time saved by council staff not having to chase up the status of reported issues. Heck, I'll even host it for them for free! Sub-contractors could also use the same view to update the council and the end user on what's happening (or why its not happening, as it often the case!)
Given we're constantly being told by politicians that money is being slashed from public service budgets by "efficiency savings" when are we going to see some of these filter through to our beloved local council?
I'd love to hear peoples thoughts on the blog on whether such a ticket/tracking service would be of use.
Regards
Neil

Reply posted 5th Mar 2010 by Graham Dunn

Dealing with the council

I totally agree with your comments. I too have reported matters such as blocked drains, potholes and dodgy tree pruning over the last couple of years and have experienced the same difficulty in getting action, responses and feedback. Nice to see you have a solution for them aswell.
Because of the difficulties in the past I have held off reporting the numerous examples of diintegrating roads. Our own is beginning to resemble an unadopted road it is such a bad state.

Reply posted 5th Mar 2010 by Cristina

I think they are efficient

I have contacted the council on a number of occassions for various things and have always had a quick response from them and they action every single request within a week. The things have ranged from pot holes, to emptying bin's and I've even had follow up phone calls so I can't fault them.

Reply posted 12th Mar 2010 by Rada Al-Khafaji

Sometimes!

I too reported two blocked gullies many months ago and sent reminders, but to date they are still blocked. I also reported a dead tree outside my property and this was removed within a week. They haven't been so quick though in planting a new tree instead.
Best wishes,
Rada

Reply posted 6th Apr 2010 by Cllr. Donald Speakman

Interesting suggestion

I would be pleased if Neil could provide some technical details for his 'Report It' software. I will then discuss with Council officers whether we can introduce the system.