Sunday, November 8th, 2026, 3:13 pm
Manchester City Council Report Card – Part 6 – Grotesque Misallocation of Staff or “Human Resources”
Filed under: Not genuinely interested in actually providing services anymore
bout 30 hours ago I published 2 parts. The latter spoke about false “options” or invalid “options” given to my wife and I. Those had already failed, that’s why we came to speak in person. I told them that the privatised Post Office wasn’t Town Hall and accessibility in the Web site was awful. Nobody there could digest those messages. It was like talking to a wall.
2 weeks earlier I attempted to phone the line (call centre) they kept promoting, but it was unavailable every time, even when I came in person and dialled 102 at the main office.
There are several issues here, the least of which is that they’re not collecting money from the public to actually staff their services properly. They are clearly understaffed in some areas but also overstaffed in others (people doing nothing, knowing nothing, barely trying to help anybody).
There are demands for particular services, but that’s above the level they’re able to facilitate/fulfil. They’re collecting money from people and not delivering.
I told them that on two occasions already they were clearly understaffed after 1PM on a Thursday (nobody able to pick up the call), not a holiday or anything like that.
Face-to-face? Not a chance. Only over a phone, even when you’re already right there. Odd. I’ll later explain that it didn’t use to be like that. I’ll also explain that they told us to walk away and try phoning at 9AM as if it’ll magically work that way and that after 10 minutes on the line one can request a callback.
There is no assurance, however, that this would happen.
They were at least sincere about the low expectations. Maybe deep inside they too realised how unreliable the serviced had become.
Gosh, what an awful experience. All for the simple task of updating one’s details!
