Council tax double bill

John_Pierpoint

You don't live in my sub-prime council area.
When I get through to someone with a "can do" rather than "can't do" attitude, I'll let you know.
It is nice to see that Edinburgh seems to be taking a proactive attitude to help the original poster sort out this muddle;:T I was expecting the "we can't tell you that, its against the data protection act" get-out response.

So far:
I've had to go to court before I could get my local council to agree that I had paid 100GBP (now more than doubled with court and administration charges). I had already written three letters giving details of when and where I had paid, which had been ignored.

I've had to go to the the ombudsman twice and now have about 2000 pounds of fellow tax payers money.
In the most venal case the manager responsible is still in post, but someone who was trying to do the job at a "leased car" level has been forced out.
I've had to take independent legal advice, where someone a step up from muppet employee came up with the "it cannot be our responsibility as its not public highway" get out, presumably without checking. It is public highway and even if it wasn't the local authority was still responsible. That was after the initial "its not in our area ploy". (Buy a map for the staff?)

I think a major part of the problem is that in commerce both parties to a transaction benefit. There is a simple measure of performance "Are you making a profit?"

In a politically led, union controlled, organisation where those paying in are not the same as those taking out; there is no universally acknowledged measure of performance. In this environment there is great scope for "playing politics", expanding your department, defending vested interests and generally becoming inward looking, Where performance is judged, not by results but by following the process - however stupid the outcome.

For some people working in this environment, the highlight of the day must be 17:00 hrs when they go home, regardless of whether the day's work had been completed.
(or go down to the pub for a good winge about how efficient they could be if it were not for the incompetence of their managers/public:beer:)