What is your time, or that of anyone else really worth?

[Danllan]

I ask because I've just received a mail from a friend who, being rather p!ssed off with the state of the roads here, has been pushing the County Council to actually do something about it. Said friend has a manufacturing business employing about forty people, so he pays his fair portion of tax and helps others to pay theirs too. He has got nowhere...

We have a facility on the County Council website which allows for notification of a pothole (note the singular), The council then send out a 'team' to fix it - and they do this fairly quickly. But the'ill only fix a single pothole as registered via the website. The twenty others surrounding it will be ignored every time...

If you notify them of eight potholes, individually, eight will be filled, if you tell them of twelve, they will fill twelve. There is no way they can be made to fill multiple potholes on the basis of one notification. This is truly f**king ridiculous.

My friend has being trying to have a chat with the Chief Executive of Carmarthenshire County Council, he is a determined fellow, but this has so far proven unsuccessful even after nearly six months of trying. And yet, he has been able to meet his MP, AM, the former FM, and he even met the UK's PM last year, although that was not about the roads.

He is one step away from taking out double-page ads in the local press to embarrass the Chief Executive into seeing him, if she dares...

The UK PM receives £167k each year (that includes his MP salary); the First Minister of Wales receives £153k each year; the Chief Executive of Carmarthenshire County Council now receives £154k each year - a few years ago, it was actually even more than the UK PM was then getting...

I have no problem with the free market seeing someone get what they can; but this isn't the free market, there is no risk in these job, it all comes form our taxes; something is very wrong with the amounts these people are paid, either the PM and FM should be getting significantly more, or the Chief Executive should be getting far, far less.

 

[ollie989898]

I would venture that you would be largely wasting your time even engaging with the local authority really. The public sector is loaded with people who are just keeping their heads down, taking their pay, building their pensions and counting down the days to retirement. I know because I have met with and worked with a large number of them.

 

[Swarfmonkey]

I see no reason whatsoever that anyone in the public sector should be paid more than the PM, and pish poor performance should be punished (reduce the nominal employer's pension contribution for each incidence of incompetence?).

As to the pothole problem you could take a leaf out of the book of the legendary Wanksy of Greater Manchester to get the council to deal with them. All you need is a can of spray paint...

 

[ollie989898]

I see no reason whatsoever that anyone in the public sector should be paid more than the PM, and pish poor performance should be punished (reduce the nominal employer's pension contribution for each incidence of incompetence?).

As to the pothole problem you could take a leaf out of the book of the legendary Wanksy of Greater Manchester to get the council to deal with them. All you need is a can of spray paint...

I've said this before. No public servant anywhere should be paid more than the Prime Minister. It's morally indefensible.

Increasingly as time goes by I fully believe that the public sector is less about service provision and more about employment provision.

 

[Danllan]

I see no reason whatsoever that anyone in the public sector should be paid more than the PM, and pish poor performance should be punished (reduce the nominal employer's pension contribution for each incidence of incompetence?).

As to the pothole problem you could take a leaf out of the book of the legendary Wanksy of Greater Manchester to get the council to deal with them. All you need is a can of spray paint...

I'd not heard of him until that post, what a good idea...

 

[lloyd]

It's all about culpability. No one in any public job wants to take responsibility
in case they get the blame and as the saying goes 'where there's a blame,there's a claim'
has really damaged the ability of individuals to get on with their jobs.
So in short the country needs a complete overhaul of the laws along with less regulation.

 

[Danllan]

I sent him a link to this thread, and he hadn't heard of Wanksy either...

That aside, he is also waiting on a reply about the cost per pothole of repairing them in the manner the County Council does. And he is doing this because... his brother in law, in the English Midlands, found that his own local authority's in-house road repair system cost nearly three times what local private contractors there would have charged and had, indeed, offered to the council...

Are we all f**king stupid or what? This is all utterly barking, how on Earth do we allow this crap to go on? I have avoided political involvement because, knowing a fair number of politicians, I have seen what it does to family life and personal freedom.

But with regard to this and a few other matters I have now decided that, once my children are all grown and doing their own things, starting locally I am 100% going to go into politics, if only to embarrass the 'authorities' and the local politicians already there into actually doing something. Even if I never get elected, the voicing of a lot of uncomfortable truths should achieve something.

Yuck... really, really don't want to, but if we all keep saying and doing nothing what will change...?

 

[lloyd]

I sent him a link to this thread, and he hadn't heard of Wanksy either...

That aside, he is also waiting on a reply about the cost per pothole of repairing them in the manner the County Council does. And he is doing this because... his brother in law, in the English Midlands, found that his own local authority's in-house road repair system cost nearly three times what local private contractors there would have charged and had, indeed, offered to the council...

Are we all f**king stupid or what? This is all utterly barking, how on Earth do we allow this crap to go on? I have avoided political involvement because, knowing a fair number of politicians, I have seen what it does to family life and personal freedom.

But with regard to this and a few other matters I have now decided that, once my children are all grown and doing their own things, starting locally I am 100% going to go into politics, if only to embarrass the 'authorities' and the local politicians already there into actually doing something. Even if I never get elected, the voicing of a lot of uncomfortable truths should achieve something.

Yuck... really, really don't want to, but if we all keep saying and doing nothing what will change...?

My neighbours have tecently been in the local paper stood by a row of potholes .
They've been waiting 10 years for something more permanent than cold tar being filled
into them and finally this week it's being done.(hopefully).

 

[lloyd]

What annoys me is on the minor unclassified roads the communities
would probably do most repairs themselves but are not allowed to.

 

[Danllan]

My neighbours have tecently been in the local paper stood by a row of potholes .
They've been waiting 10 years for something more permanent than cold tar being filled
into them and finally this week it's being done.(hopefully).

Impatient bast*rds...

 

[Danllan]

What annoys me is on the minor unclassified roads the communities
would probably do most repairs themselves but are not allowed to.

I recently unblocked a roadside entrance to a soak-away where there was a huge puddle - itself covering a huge bloody pothole! I was told by the blokes that filled the pothole that the Council didn't want* people doing that - this is the same Carmarthenshire County Council that claims to want to encourage pride in our communities and local involvement...


*probably really meaning it was less work for Council employees - but ffs, there is no end of stuff for them to do!

 

[caveman]

Vote Reform.
You know it makes sense.

 

[lloyd]

Vote Reform.
You know it makes sense.

I'd rather break a spring.

 

[Danllan]

Vote Reform.
You know it makes sense.

I agree with some of what it advocates, but a lot is simply barking. In any case, as far as elections go under FPTP, what's the point? The only realistic use of my vote in doing that would be to instigate change within the Conservative Party. Well, that's an option, but not the best by any measure.

 

[fudge]

TBH rural roads are falling to pieces this situation can only be resolved by investment far beyond any local council ATM. Over here “repairs” are carried out by private contractors but the quality of the work is poor, lasting a very short time. One particular problem is that utilities dig up the roads frequently and the reinstatement of the surface is very badly done, seemingly it’s impossible to hold them to account. The flip side of this is that the county council is struggling to balance its budget…….. I can’t see this situation changing anytime soon.

 

[caveman]

I'd rather break a spring.

I agree with some of what it advocates, but a lot is simply barking. In any case, as far as elections go under FPTP, what's the point? The only realistic use of my vote in doing that would be to instigate change within the Conservative Party. Well, that's an option, but not the best by any measure.

Carry on having broken springs then.

 

[czechmate]

Carry on having broken springs then.

or, slow down /drive around pot holes

 

[lloyd]

Carry on having broken springs then.

I've been told Hilux warranty apparently covers them .
No such assurance from reform they are built up from has beens.

 

[lloyd]

or, slow down .

Is that why you never made it to the world stages?

 

[caveman]

or, slow down /drive around pot holes

It's getting to the stage where one has to slow down and drive around the bits of black top left sticking up proud.