Town Hall exists for citizens, not tourists; the service became utterly awful

N the previous part I ended or concluded by claiming that our money is spent or wasted on vanity projects. The Council (or Town Hall) is spending millions of pounds (maybe tens or hundreds of millions of pounds) in order to refurbish “old buildings”, not because that would improve safety, service, or function. Maybe they see those as “tourist attractions” for visitors. Quoting Rianne, they see those as a “tourist spot” to be used “for tourists” (or tourism).

What about the actual citizens (which they call “customers”)? Are they served by this “transition”? This reminds me of the “overtourism” debate in Europe. Our priorities get neglected for “the industry” (of hospitality I suppose).

The thing is, the staff used to give real service/care to people. Services were provided.

Now, if you get lucky enough to be placed on a queue when you call to update some details, you’re gonna need to wait 30 minutes on the line (not during rush hour or a busy day) to get to #8 in the queue, 31 minutes to be at #7, 34 minutes to get to #6, 35 minutes to be at #5. Given these patterns, we estimated that only 2 or so people were used to handle millions of citizens! 2 for a million is a ratio of 1 per 500,000. Insane.

They say “our phone line is extraordinarily busy”.

So hire more people.

But no… just wait on the line for an hour (if you get lucky enough to even be placed on the queue).

Not happy?

There’s no complaints address. They don’t want to hear anything negative. Not anymore. They’ve even removed the physical forms that were once used to facilitate this. Staff at “Customers Service” (or “Support”) told me this 3.5 weeks ago.

So they’re not receptive to criticism, even constructive advice.

While parked there waiting on the line we observed an old citizen looking for “Service” or “Support”. He said he had struggled, spoke about “housing benefits”, mentioned “rent”. His walking stick fell, he was generally distraught. I couldn’t help him, nor could the staff. They just looked at him with the stares of “nothing we can do” or tried to send him elsewhere.

This ends this series (at least for now). We’re very displeased. On the positive note (or solace of sorts), many people feel the same way:

This needs an overhaul. We’ve identified a real problem.

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