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#1
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and who said consultation was pointless?
I was getting a bit fed up with kids vandalising garden fences in our
area, and the attitude of the police, and then I noticed that the Home Office were asking for people's views on crime for their Strategic Plan. Spurred on by recent media reports that vandalism and graffiti are the two crimes that people are most worried about (damn right!) I wrote to them, telling them to take it more seriously. After a few days I received a reply saying "The matters you have raised are the responsibility of Office of the Deputy Prime Minister". Fair enough - I always thought crime was a Home Office matter, but I saw the way Prescott punched that guy who threw an egg at him, so he should be able to make mincemeat out of the little sh*ts round our place. They said they'd passed my letter on, so I left it at that. Anyway, a few days later I received another reply, and this one's just taking the mickey "The matters you have raised are the responsibility of Food & Rural Affairs". What??? I certainly don't grow any food in my garden, and it isn't exactly rural either! I think I'm starting to understand where the police get their "not our problem" attitude from. At this rate, by next week my garden will be the responsibility of the Ministry of Defence, in which case I'll just declare it a Prohibited Place and put barbed wire up - problem solved :-) |
#2
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and who said consultation was pointless?
"Ben" wrote I was getting a bit fed up with kids vandalising garden fences in our area, and the attitude of the police, and then I noticed that the Home Office were asking for people's views on crime for their Strategic Plan. Spurred on by recent media reports that vandalism and graffiti are the two crimes that people are most worried about (damn right!) I wrote to them, telling them to take it more seriously. After a few days I received a reply saying "The matters you have raised are the responsibility of Office of the Deputy Prime Minister". Fair enough - I always thought crime was a Home Office matter, but I saw the way Prescott punched that guy who threw an egg at him, so he should be able to make mincemeat out of the little sh*ts round our place. They said they'd passed my letter on, so I left it at that. Anyway, a few days later I received another reply, and this one's just taking the mickey "The matters you have raised are the responsibility of Food & Rural Affairs". What??? I certainly don't grow any food in my garden, and it isn't exactly rural either! I think I'm starting to understand where the police get their "not our problem" attitude from. At this rate, by next week my garden will be the responsibility of the Ministry of Defence, in which case I'll just declare it a Prohibited Place and put barbed wire up - problem solved :-) Similar problem when I complained last year about the treatment, actually a total lack of care, one of Sues relatives received whilst in Hospital. Wrote to the Minister for Health because I had lost all faith in the hospital and it's lack of any management, lots of administrators though. The Hospitals "Complaints Dept" had already lied to, and mislead us, on more than one occasion. All I got was a " complaints are not our job, use the procedure and complain to the hospital" letter, so we go round in circles. They weren't even interested in proof that the hospital in question was not logging complaints. Wonder what would have happened if I had praised the Hospital? :-) -- Regards Bob in Runnymede, 17miles west of London, UK |
#3
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and who said consultation was pointless?
reference the two letters.
I have discovered that you have to put a 'sting in the tail' of a letter of complaint. Example. My road is only 140 metres long and terminates with a pedestrian underpass under the railway line. Time and time again, the Gas Board would come and dig the road up because the Gas pipe, which was very old, kept on leaking. "Why don't you put a new gas main in?" I asked. 'No money', "But you spend hours trying to find these leaks", 'That is because the pipe is wrapped in hessian and the leak travels along and comes out somewhere else, it even gets into the drains' "IT EVEN GETS INTO THE DRAINS"!!!! Letter to Gas Board re old gas pipe, their fitter reported that gas gets into the drains. Pedestrian underpass with drains in it and an electric train conductor rail 7 ft above!1 Disaster waiting to happen????? Your faithfully Copied to the Rail Company Within 10 days the road was up and we had a new gas Main in :-)) Another The Council wanted to sell off some land for housing. The area has a water flooding problem due to small sewers. Present houses flood. (4 times to above skirting board level in 16 years) "Dear Council. May I draw your attention to the inadequate sewer system whereby houses flood with excessive rain. Should you see fit to grant planning permission for this land for housing, thereby adding to the present problems, this letter, copied to the houses at present concerned, will be proof of you negligence and will make a claim against you when next flooded. Yours etc Copied to Numbers etc etc etc Planning permission refused and land not sold You must have a sting in the tail whereby they will think twice. Could give lots of examples. Hope that helps. Think how their actions, or NONE actions, can hurt them. Mike |
#4
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and who said consultation was pointless?
Ben wrote in message ... I was getting a bit fed up with kids vandalising garden fences in our area, and the attitude of the police, and then I noticed that the Home Office were asking for people's views on crime for their Strategic Plan. Spurred on by recent media reports that vandalism and graffiti are the two crimes that people are most worried about (damn right!) I wrote to them, telling them to take it more seriously. After a few days I received a reply saying "The matters you have raised are the responsibility of Office of the Deputy Prime Minister". Fair enough - I always thought crime was a Home Office matter, but I saw the way Prescott punched that guy who threw an egg at him, so he should be able to make mincemeat out of the little sh*ts round our place. They said they'd passed my letter on, so I left it at that. Anyway, a few days later I received another reply, and this one's just taking the mickey "The matters you have raised are the responsibility of Food & Rural Affairs". What??? I certainly don't grow any food in my garden, and it isn't exactly rural either! I think I'm starting to understand where the police get their "not our problem" attitude from. At this rate, by next week my garden will be the responsibility of the Ministry of Defence, in which case I'll just declare it a Prohibited Place and put barbed wire up - problem solved :-) Hi Ben, Maybe it's worth talking to your neighbours and finding out how wide-spread this problem is. I am the Neighbourhood Watch Coordinator for our road and, when we had these problems - and worse - we all stood together. I arranged a police meeting in my home and the result was an Anti-Social Behaviour Order (ASBO) on the hooligans involved. We still have occasional problems, but we continue to have police support - and the two-legged rats know it. If they forget, we remind them )) ! If you do approach the Police, you will need to make contact with your local Beat Officer. Hope things improve for you. Spider |
#5
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and who said consultation was pointless?
Spider wrote:
Maybe it's worth talking to your neighbours and finding out how wide-spread this problem is. I am the Neighbourhood Watch Coordinator for our road and, when we had these problems - and worse - we all stood together. I arranged a police meeting in my home and the result was an Anti-Social Behaviour Order (ASBO) on the hooligans involved. We still have occasional problems, but we continue to have police support - and the two-legged rats know it. If they forget, we remind them )) ! If you do approach the Police, you will need to make contact with your local Beat Officer. Thanks for the advice. Part of the problem is actually indifference from the neighbours, so I can't exactly see us standing together. One of my neighbours is the Parish Council and trying to get them to fix their fence after its been vandalised I have to wait for the next monthly meeting then go and put my case to a panel of 10 councillors, then wait another month and go back to see if they've decided to do anything, etc - not the best of neighbours. Another neighbour is the church. The people who rent the house from them seem to have no intention of getting their fence fixed, or even stopping it being vandalised further, and they wouldn't even tell me who the owner was. In the end I found out who the owner was from HM Land Registry and wrote them a letter telling them their fence had been vandalised and asking them to fix it, I'm still waiting for a reply. The local council aren't much better, when I reported graffiti to them they turned up and removed some of it but left the rest. Given that the police seem to think its our problem, not theirs, I don't see any hope of an antisocial behaviour order, although I will definitely take up your suggestion of contacting our local beat officer. Even though we've called the police quite a lot lately, we still haven't seen the guy in our area yet. Reporting incidents to a single point of contact will at least mean that someone in the police gets a feel for the scale of the problem, which they don't seem to have at the moment. |
#6
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and who said consultation was pointless?
Ben wrote in message ... Spider wrote: Maybe it's worth talking to your neighbours and finding out how wide-spread this problem is. I am the Neighbourhood Watch Coordinator for our road and, when we had these problems - and worse - we all stood together. I arranged a police meeting in my home and the result was an Anti-Social Behaviour Order (ASBO) on the hooligans involved. We still have occasional problems, but we continue to have police support - and the two-legged rats know it. If they forget, we remind them )) ! If you do approach the Police, you will need to make contact with your local Beat Officer. Thanks for the advice. Part of the problem is actually indifference from the neighbours, so I can't exactly see us standing together. One of my neighbours is the Parish Council and trying to get them to fix their fence after its been vandalised I have to wait for the next monthly meeting then go and put my case to a panel of 10 councillors, then wait another month and go back to see if they've decided to do anything, etc - not the best of neighbours. Another neighbour is the church. The people who rent the house from them seem to have no intention of getting their fence fixed, or even stopping it being vandalised further, and they wouldn't even tell me who the owner was. In the end I found out who the owner was from HM Land Registry and wrote them a letter telling them their fence had been vandalised and asking them to fix it, I'm still waiting for a reply. The local council aren't much better, when I reported graffiti to them they turned up and removed some of it but left the rest. Given that the police seem to think its our problem, not theirs, I don't see any hope of an antisocial behaviour order, although I will definitely take up your suggestion of contacting our local beat officer. Even though we've called the police quite a lot lately, we still haven't seen the guy in our area yet. Reporting incidents to a single point of contact will at least mean that someone in the police gets a feel for the scale of the problem, which they don't seem to have at the moment. Hi Ben, You really have my sympathy - what a soul-destroying situation. It is certainly true, as you say, that having one dedicated contact will build a much clearer picture of the problem. Keeping a diary (with photo proof, if possible), will also help your case and show just how seriously you take it. It's a pity that your two council bodies don't have a bit more civic pride between them. Do you have no other immediate private residents whom you could stir out of their apathy? You make me feel so lucky to have such a good bunch of neighbours! (Life is not entirely a bed of roses, however - our next door neighbour (No.13!) is a drummer .. I'm working hard to keep open channels of friendly communication, but there is some underlying tension!) Here in London (we're in L.B. Southwark), the Met Police and the council are in close association. This may not be the case where you live, but if it is, your local Beat Officer may be able to put some pressure on the council. So may you, of course, by chasing your complaint daily. This * really* helps. Councils give priority to people who are prepared to prioritise their own case. I discovered this with my own council after waiting for adequate street lighting. I finally asked the council contact what their official policy was when dealing with such complaints. The chap admitted that their policy amounted to "those who moan most, get most" .. unofficially speaking! I had done just that; I showed them no mercy .. took no prisoners. Show them you mean business - don't wait for their next meeting, but badger them to glory. Tell them you're working with your Beat Officer and keeping that all-important diary. Yes, I know, it sounds like a lot of grief and hard work. Eventually, though, you should get somewhere. In the meantime, you will feel more in control, more positive. Actions speak louder than words - the two together make powerful stuff! I shall keep my fingers crossed for you. Regards, Spider |
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