In Praise of Hyndburn Council

[Mick]

LESS asked me to post this for him

Hi, I’m still waiting for my telephone and broadband to be connected so I’ve asked Mick to put this on for me.

In Praise of Hyndburn Council
Well actually that is not quite true, I actually mean in praise of one lady from Hyndburn Council.

My tale begins late November last year, I was summoned to my front door by a light knocking.
There before me was a lady from the council, “Hello “, she said, “my name is Susan and I’m from the Council”, (actually her name was Sheila but I don’t want to get her into trouble with her bosses so from now on she’s called Susan). She then went on to explain that as I probably knew my house was part of the phoenix 2 project and therefore had I done anything about moving?
I replied with a definite no because I’ve been waiting for someone from the council to turn up and give me some information about what I should do, Susan smiled pleasantly and said that, “today is your lucky day I am that person, could I make an appointment to do a home visit in the near future and we can discuss your options”.

An appointment was made, Susan turned up spent a lot of time explaining my options and assisting with application forms, the result of which was that by the end of February I had been moved into a very nicely refurbished terraced house. This dear friend is where we come to what is the fly in the ointment, I am on benefits, rent and council tax paid, no real problem, a visit to the town hall and I’m told that there is nothing to worry about as I already have an ongoing claim for the property I’m already living in all they have to do is transfer it to my new address, wonderful, (erm no not quite as wonderful as you might at first think). I’ve been at my new address just about a fortnight and yesterday I got two letters, one from the housing association informing me I owe a weeks rent, the other from the council demanding the two months council tax I owe for February and March for my new address.
Rather than go down to the Town Hall and play at shuffle bottom on those seats waiting for my ticket number to be called out I thought I would give Susan a ring and perhaps cut through the red tape, as usual she was happy to help and would call that very afternoon, she called I showed her the letters, “oh, these are nothing to worry about Leslie, things will sort themselves out”. “No Susan”, I replied, “I’ve been here before I was told to ignore these teething troubles last time I moved and it resulted in threatening letters etc. from the council for money I don’t owe, so could you please get in touch with these people and make sure it doesn’t happen again?”
Never have I seen a person become so deflated so quickly, She hesitated, then rather meekly said, “but that not my department”. I had to agree it wasn’t her department but she had started the ball rolling and she would have more chance of contacting the correct people than I would so she eventually said she would see what she could do.
I now feel guilty, because a lady that is obviously very good in her own little world has now been given a job similar to something from ‘Mission Impossible’, will she have the nerve to carry out the task or will she take the easy way out and stay in the telephone booth hoping that when the tape self destructs it will also end her own suffering?
Only time will tell.

[K.S.H]

Do it yourself as well, 2 people on the job might stand a better chance

Oh, and dont forget her flowers

[spinner]

the lady was keen to impress you probably because you agreed to move into a new prperty. she was obviosly nice for this purpose only being nasty wont make people move

[cashman]

i may be an old cynic,but i,m with spinner on this Less, if anything can possibly be cocked up HBC, are past masters. as KSH says i would do it myself also, taking names etc of who i spoke to. best of luck mate your gonna need it. i speak as one who has suffered the incompetence of these people in the past.

[garinda]

Face to face the people there can be very nice, and do a good job, though some I've come into contact with higher up, shouldn't be allowed to lick stamps never mind run departments. I've saved a letter from one highly placed woman, only becasuse it was the most badly written letter, full of spelling mistakes, and the worse letter that I've ever seen. Happily I managed to decipher her unintelligble scrawl, and eventually got to tell her face to face of her achievment.

As for departments, they are like curtains in boarding houses, they serve a purpose of sorts, but very rarely meet.

Best of British Less.

[Neil]

Originally Posted by garinda

some I've come into contact with higher up, shouldn't be allowed to lick stamps never mind run departments

I keep getting confused with stamps, those damn self adhesive ones really hurt when you pull them off your tongue

[chav1]

i got a letter of the council the other day demanding to know when i moved in with myself.Even if i was schizophrenic surely the amount of people in teh house is the same ir do we now have to make a claim for each personality we have because if thats the case surely you can have multiple claims and be pretty rich

i feel sory for those folk at teh glass windows at teh council because once they send the paperwork upstairs it may as well be put directly into a shredder for all teh good it does

[WillowTheWhisp]

Oh dear Less, best of luck with this one but don't hold your breath. I think Spinner is right. 'Susan' was probably only doing her 'get him out of there' job and you'll probably be better off like Cashy says if you go down there and try to sort it out yourself. As you already know from past experience, it won't be easy.

[Less]

Originally Posted by K.S.H

Do it yourself as well, 2 people on the job might stand a better chance

Oh, and dont forget her flowers

Yes K.S.H I agree with you and now that I finally have my land line back I can actually sit on hold in my own vain attempts to contact someone in Hyndburns finance department. (I won't bother with the flowers though, I wouldn't want to frighten the poor girl by what could be misinterpreted as a sexist gesture).

spinner=the lady was keen to impress you probably because you agreed to move into a new prperty. she was obviosly nice for this purpose only being nasty wont make people move

cashman=i may be an old cynic,but i,m with spinner on this Less,

spinner, cashman, I too am a well known cynic, but in actual fact, Susan did and still does seem to be a person that actually wants to help people.

Latest update
Susan I'm pleased to say did rise to the challenge, she tackled the situation like a good 'un and was able to inform me that having contacted the Housing association on my behalf they are happy with the situation and do realise that it is a delay due to Hyndburns dealing with my claim.
However, she was sorry to say that she failed miserably when it came to sorting out the glitch with my council tax, she did contact the finance department explained who she was and met with a brick wall, the fact that she works for the council and knew all the details from beginning to end about my situation didn't cut any ice, they refused to talk to her because she was not a member of their department and she (they said), had no authority to act on my behalf.

So all in all, I would like to say a big thank you to Susan for all that she has done for me in a very cheery fashion and I hope her efforts will one day be recognised as the way forward for dealing with the general public in all departments at the town hall.

P.S.

chav1=i feel sory for those folk at teh glass windows at teh council

yes, the guy I spoke to from behind the glass down there was also pleasant and helpful, I wouldn't want to do his job for any amount of money.

Right that's probably it, I'll be returning to my version normal for all my future threads so if my praising a fellow human being has confused any of you I do apologise and will try not to let it happen again.

[cashman]

apology accepted, shame though one dept will not listen to another (pathetic) hope this apology does not mean you have been damaged in some way.

[harwood red]

I have this all the time. With working for a housing association in blackburn and supporting vulnerable people Many elderly or with mental health problems) I come across many brick walls trying to sort out their benefits including housing benefit/council tax benefit!! It can be damn frustrating!!!