Wokingham Borough Council - are all councils the same?

Carla and I have been speaking with the council since the beginning of December about a little matter (then) that has grown into something of a major complaint - that had they been responsible would have been resolved without issue.

The complaint relates to what we thought was a pot hole in the road outside our house, which is actually a services cover but has the same resounding THUD THUD every time a vehicle drives over it - on a High Street that's very often, day and night.

After several complaint mails and phone calls (and a cancelled fix) we finally got a date when they would come and resolve it. So on the day I (with a large grin on my face) stood and watched as the Highways road crew fixed a minor road defect the opposite side of the road, which was definitely not outside our house (as we had told them many times) and was definitely not going to cause the noise issue I described to them. When i contacted the council a week later (thinking that surely they could not be that stupid) they told me we have fixed it - to which I laughed and asked them to check their records as they may have not read my many letters / emails / on-line chat sessions correctly. Do you know what they said? Oh okay thanks, we will send the Highways manager out (by this they mean the same man who checked it wrongly 3 times before?).

Did I get a call back following their call out? No, instead I had to call them a week later when I was told "it's not a council/Highways matter at all - in fact this is actually a problem caused by a Thames Water service cover and as such they have issued a section 81 to Thames Water". This sounds great right? Wrong! Having issued it there is no statutory time for the water authority to correct the matter. 1 month on and the council have decided it's not their job to chase Thames Water so I phoned them myself. My complaint was listened to but I was dismayed when they told me it was not their fault despite the month old section 81. They told me they will do a temporary fix today and dispatched a crew - guess what - it's not their problem as it's the fresh water department! They have now been told to fix it immediately, which - in their terms I am told - means 12 days. I think I will pay my next water bill promptly in 2014!

The council of course have washed their hands of any responsibility on behalf of a tax and council taxpayer (that's me - I pay their wages) and so I have now issued the council with a compensation claim for their negligence and the noise pollution that has disrupted our lives for 3 months.
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This is of course the same council that believes this sign


means anyone can park here after 6 o'clock and will not be breaking the rules. I mean call me old fashioned but when I pay for one thing I don't expect to get something else. At £650 per car per year my wife and I stupidly thought we had a right to park here and others who don't pay cannot. Are we being inconsiderate to law breakers, are we making a mountain out of a mole hill?out of touch with reality? This blogger thinks not.