Yet another rant about council failings
I'm sick and tired of Ealing Council trumpeting the fact that council tax has not increased for 8 years now - speaking on behalf of myself and neighbours I've discussed this with, we'd more than happily pay more council tax if it meant a better service. Ealing Council execs are taking home huge salaries (159 paid upwards of £50k, 11 paid £100k+) whilst IMHO many of our key services, such as our roads, social care, rubbish collections, sanitisation and management of fly-tipping are all degrading. It certainly feels like 'They Don't Work For You'. 1. Wheelie bins (been discussed to death already)Nobody wanted them, yet they've been foisted on us. If you're going to act in such dictatorial fashion at least get it right and provide the service that we've been railroaded into. It's seemingly a lottery as to what gets collected and when. In our household, we recycle almost everything, so have very little household rubbish, maybe one to two black bags every fortnight, but our recycling bin is full by the end of each week, meaning trips to local recycling centres for the additional. Yet even despite this our recycling bin is still not collected on schedule. This is always reported, but why do I have to waste my time filling out 5 webpages pretty much every collection week? The results are wheelie bins left blocking the pavements for days on end as nobody knows when they'll be collected, but can't afford to miss it. It's a well publicised shambles, yet in 4 months there's been no sign of improvement at all, even the contrary. 2. Stop wasting money on personal benefitsThe road changes implemented (Longfield Ave/Courtfield Gdns) without consultation and against the wishes of residents are wrong and the only justification for Longfield can be personal benefit for council employees. It was supposedly a trial, time for someone to front up and either reverse this or explain reasons why it should stay - funds raised by punishing unsuspecting drivers is contrary to the safety aspects which apparently were used as justification for this change. 3. Draconian raising of funds It was my understanding that CCTV enforcement cars were banned https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-bans-use-of-cctv-spy-cars-for-on-street-parking so why are they still in use in Ealing? I have seen one around Ealing on an almost daily basis for the last couple of weeks. I'm not against parking fines for drivers flouting the laws, but surely the council shouldn't be breaking the law themselves. Would any councilors care to comment as to why they are being used? My understanding was that CCTV vehicles should only ever be used where it would be physically impossible or dangerous for a CEO to attend in the usual way. Clearly that's unlikely to be the case in the backstreets of Ealing. I'm sure others have other grumbles to add, but these are the main ones that annoy me. I suspect (and hope) there will be wholesale changes at the next local elections, right now I feel the council is a self-serving organisation running roughshod over its residents.
Philip Slater ● 3647d2 Comments ● 3639d