This is the state of the floor at the top of the stairs after the electricians finished - nowhere to fix the floorboard along one edge, no problem - just nail it down one edge!

. . . and the Council inspector's view? "You can just put a piece of board in there." - March 2003.

The main drain (a communal drain running through the gardens of several properties before joining the public drain belwo the street) blocked up. This was treated as a priority and a chappy duly arrived and cleared the drain.

A few days later, the same problem. Another chappy duly turned out to diagnose that the problem was on another property but, having searched neighbouring gardens, could not find any manholes so would return in the light.

A daylight search still revealed no manholes and, despite the house being in the centre of a Council-built estate, the Council did not keep records of where the drains were or even in which direction they run.

The following day, a team of no less than four contractors arrived to search for the timid manhole(s). The manhole was found after some five minutes and fifteen minutes later the problem had been solved.

The problem is, how much did this saga in miniature cost? And how much do similar sagas cost the council tax payer every year? After all, blocked drains are not that uncommon an occurence.

	Brocken during installation and promised to be replaced - that was in December 2002, it is now 2004!
The window that time forgot? This is the old window, still in place a year later because the contractor "forgot to make it". Doubtless no-one forgot to charge for it and the Council didn't bother to check - it's not their money ... they can just increase the council tax by 13%
. . . and the finish on the bedroom window;-
	. . . the side
	. . . and the top

The floorboards in the main bedroom and the smallest bedroom of the same house are being munched away very nicely by woodworm - to the extent that the leg of the bed went through the edge of the floorboard.

The Council inspector could only comment "You can get stuff to paint on that." on his first visit.

On his second visit, once the leg of the bed had gone through the floor, he had a change of heart and the response this time was "I will have to get three quotes for treating that."

A chappy duly arrived several weeks later to look at the problem and make a quote. Nothing else has been heard on the subject since. That was in spring, 2003 - it is now January 2004!

Perhaps, once the woodworm eat right through the joists and the bedroom falls into the kitchen and bathroom beneath the Council can get some sort of grant from central governemnt rather than paying from the rates? Or, perhaps, there is a policy of rolling replacement of housing stock - the woodworm could be a great ally of the department saving a small fortune in demolition costs? Only the beaurocrats in the Council offices have the answer to this one though.

The facts pretty-much speak for themselves. Every contract between a contractor and sub-contractor stipulates that " . . . the work will be carried out in a workman-like manner . . . ", obviously a completely alien concept to the Swindon Borough Council - from execution and supervision upwards because the end result is going to be no better than the management.

Consider this - how long would any private enterpise which worked like this last?

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