Cut-backs begin to bite

[crankedup]

muffinmenace said:

crankedup said:

Hope the legal fees will be covered, but its not warranted.

What like Legal Aid? LOL!

That would be nice! no I would hope that my legal costs would be shoved onto the other side. Legal aid is only for those that haven't worked hard all their lives isn't it.

[singlecoil]

singlecoil said:

It's in the nature of cutbacks that there will be less services provided by those agencies that are cut back than previously. Every now and then we will find ourselves in situations where we are directly affected by this.

So, OP, what exactly is your point? That there should be no cutbacks? Public borrowing should increase?

I daresay you don't want to respond to this, just quoting it to make sure you had seen it, as I am interested to know what your point is, and what you think the solution is.

[Puggit]

Cut backs? Isn't public spending still rising...?

The problem is due to public money being wasted on non-essential parts, growing the public sector jobs to places it shouldn't be. Then more essential needs (such as your flood problem) are now not covered, while people still lounge in jobs they shouldn't be doing and don't need doing.

13 years of Labour...

Let's cutback in the right places!

[McWigglebum4th]

crankedup said:

We had cause to call out the fire service Sunday afternoon, living rural we are dependant on private drainage with open and some piped water-courses. Long story short our friendly neighbour opposite has not maintained his pipe work which we depend upon to shift water away as designed to. His denial and intransigence led to water flooding the road and our garden, backing up septic tank. We spent hours on the telephone to all the various agencies asking for assistance, only the highways service came out to pump water off the road, they also dropped off some sandbags to us out of sympathy, not because of their obligations.

With water a few inches off our door thresholds we dialled for the fire service as last resort, a fire officer came out to inspect the situation. He told us that reluctantly they could not assist, our home had to be under four/six inches of water indoors before they could attend. However, the service could pump water to save the property flooding at a cost of five hundred pounds an hour! He estimated at least eight hours pumping required and water would most likely find its own level coming back as nowhere to pump to. Not strictly true as open watercourse nearby! The officer was very apologetic and slightly embarrassed, telling me its not what he or his fire officers joined the service to do, that is refuse to assist. Not his fault and I recognise his awkward situation.

Couldn't use the fire service pump because house insurance wouldn't accept claim without house being flooded. All this owing to one idiot who refused to acknowledge his legal and sensible obligation to clear his pipe. I had tried to clear his pipe and spent two days without success, just trying to help ourselves six weeks ago when much less severe weather caused an overflow due to this blocked pipe.

We are not the only ones affected, eventually the County Flood experts came out, they felt sorry for our adjacent neighbour who by now she had broken down in tears on the phone to them. They quickly established the obvious cause of the flooding and instructed the owner of blocked pipe to clear it pronto. Failure to maintain pipe in future will result in criminal prosecution. Bad feelings living here now and so we are selling up.

So if your going to suffer a flash-flood or such like your be fairly on your own, as we found out.
Rant over! Breathe. Cut-backs affect ALL services.

So do please tell me why the FIRE brigade should of pumped water out of your garden?

I also live in a rural location and i also suffer from water pouring off the fields.

Though strangely enough my first line of defence isn't a telephone and an attitude that it is someone else's problem.

The first thing I normally reach for is a spade and i dig out the drainage ditches. A few times it has come within an inch of flooding the house at which point i used my pump to clear it and I used my digger to clear dig out a soakaway.

Am i doing it wrong?

Should i be calling the fire brigade?

And then moaning about the evil tories because i'm a useless idiot?

[crankedup]

Burrow01 said:

Not sure how you are linking this to cutbacks directly

It happens all the time with outsourcing contracts - the contracts cover what should be done, and what the rate of charges for that work should be. If the work you are looking at is not covered by the contract, the private contractor is under no obligation to do it, or can charge the Council an exorbitant rate for it.

Previously this type of work may have been done directly by the council, but they presumably decided it was not a service they were prepared to pay for when outsourcing.

Fire and Rescue services have probably also been happy to do this in past, but if they keep getting called out because they are the only people offering to do it for free, thats where the charges kick in.

Yes spot on, its when you as a Council Community charge payer suddenly find those services you thought you were paying for are not when you need them! This is the point of my post TBH, our home is dry and we have only lost a couple of grands worth of kit in our flooded garage.

[AJS-]

I don't think even the BBC would blame that on the cuts. Unless your neighbour was a recently laid off diversity coordinator who was counting on his £1m bonus to fix his drains?

Sorry to hear about your problems but hardly the fault of the government.

[RSoovy4]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Remarkable. Race angle?

[RedLeicester]

crankedup said:

The various former public agencies are now privately run, they will only carry out obligations within contracts. Our own situation was not covered within any agency contract. The water courses would have been under the legislative regulation of the river authorities, they were disbanded and now those water courses fall into the management of anyone who happens to have an open or piped watercourse adjacent to or on their property.

Since when have the fire service been privatised? I must have missed that memo.

Private watercourses have always been the responsibility of the land owner.

[oliverjthomas]

I'm sorry about your situation and your neighbour does sound like an idiot, but what really does this have to do with cut-backs? The Fire Service has invoiced for a lot of the jobs it undertakes for many years, so this is not a new situation. As for other agencies not wishing to help, this is hardly a new situation either. Services have been fragmented for many years, but I don't honestly think the cuts can be blamed.

[TEKNOPUG]

I'm still trying to decide if I'm shocked that they didn't pump your property or that I would be more shocked if they had

[dave_s13]

Couldn't you have just got dynarod (or simlar) out to clear whatever blockage had occured??

[singlecoil]

dave_s13 said:

Couldn't you have just got dynarod (or simlar) out to clear whatever blockage had occured??

I was thinking that too, but if the neighbour had refused to pay for it then it would have been purely a neighbour dispute and therefore not really rant material (not sure that it is as it stands either).

[Tycho]

singlecoil said:

dave_s13 said:

Couldn't you have just got dynarod (or simlar) out to clear whatever blockage had occured??

I was thinking that too, but if the neighbour had refused to pay for it then it would have been purely a neighbour dispute and therefore not really rant material (not sure that it is as it stands either).

I'd rather have paid Dynarod £1000 (this isn't an insignificant amount to me) and maybe not been able to get it back than have to replace belongings, have the hassle of getting insurance payouts etc.

[dave_s13]

Tycho said:

singlecoil said:

dave_s13 said:

Couldn't you have just got dynarod (or simlar) out to clear whatever blockage had occured??

I was thinking that too, but if the neighbour had refused to pay for it then it would have been purely a neighbour dispute and therefore not really rant material (not sure that it is as it stands either).

I'd rather have paid Dynarod £1000 (this isn't an insignificant amount to me) and maybe not been able to get it back than have to replace belongings, have the hassle of getting insurance payouts etc.

Too right.

I recently had a local drain clearing firm out to CCTV my drains to find a problem, only charged me £60!! I can't see a simple rod/flushing costing that much.

[Happy82]

RSoovy4 said:

PS your neigbour is a c t.

Not necessarily, perhaps the neighbour is a former private sector worker who lost his job because the company he worked for couldn't afford to pay the increasing taxes required to prop up the woefully inefficient public sector, and therefore could not afford basic drainage maintenance...

[mybrainhurts]

crankedup said:

Long story short

[anonymous-user]

RSoovy4 said:

PS your neigbour is a c t.

And here is the issue.

I too live in the country with no mains water supply or drainage, only 4 properties in the location. We occasionally get the ditches and drains blocking a bit but we work together and avoid any real issues.

I wouldn't ask nor expect the fire service to be on stand by In case we didn't maintain our properties.

[Caulkhead]

crankedup said:

We had cause to call out the fire service Sunday afternoon, living rural we are dependant on private drainage with open and some piped water-courses. Long story short our friendly neighbour opposite has not maintained his pipe work which we depend upon to shift water away as designed to. His denial and intransigence led to water flooding the road and our garden, backing up septic tank. We spent hours on the telephone to all the various agencies asking for assistance, only the highways service came out to pump water off the road, they also dropped off some sandbags to us out of sympathy, not because of their obligations.
With water a few inches off our door thresholds we dialled for the fire service as last resort, a fire officer came out to inspect the situation. He told us that reluctantly they could not assist, our home had to be under four/six inches of water indoors before they could attend. However, the service could pump water to save the property flooding at a cost of five hundred pounds an hour! He estimated at least eight hours pumping required and water would most likely find its own level coming back as nowhere to pump to. Not strictly true as open watercourse nearby! The officer was very apologetic and slightly embarrassed, telling me its not what he or his fire officers joined the service to do, that is refuse to assist. Not his fault and I recognise his awkward situation.
Couldn't use the fire service pump because house insurance wouldn't accept claim without house being flooded. All this owing to one idiot who refused to acknowledge his legal and sensible obligation to clear his pipe. I had tried to clear his pipe and spent two days without success, just trying to help ourselves six weeks ago when much less severe weather caused an overflow due to this blocked pipe.
We are not the only ones affected, eventually the County Flood experts came out, they felt sorry for our adjacent neighbour who by now she had broken down in tears on the phone to them. They quickly established the obvious cause of the flooding and instructed the owner of blocked pipe to clear it pronto. Failure to maintain pipe in future will result in criminal prosecution. Bad feelings living here now and so we are selling up.
So if your going to suffer a flash-flood or such like your be fairly on your own, as we found out.
Rant over! Breathe. Cut-backs affect ALL services.

Glad to hear it. I want my taxes to pay for the fire service to preserve life not bail your dopey neighbour out of his responsibilities. Well done fire service for telling you where to go.

[Johnnytheboy]

Puggit said:

Cut backs? Isn't public spending still rising...?

[crankedup]

singlecoil said:

singlecoil said:

It's in the nature of cutbacks that there will be less services provided by those agencies that are cut back than previously. Every now and then we will find ourselves in situations where we are directly affected by this.

So, OP, what exactly is your point? That there should be no cutbacks? Public borrowing should increase?

I daresay you don't want to respond to this, just quoting it to make sure you had seen it, as I am interested to know what your point is, and what you think the solution is.

Your right, I didn't really want to respond this morning TBH. But in fairness and in the interests of the debate here goes.
When the Government announced the cut backs I think we all understood why it is unavoidable, whatever your tie colour. I maintained at the outset it was too much too fast. However, that aside the Government were at pains to point out that front line services should be the last to suffer from the cuts, needless office work being the first. So my reason for posting is that I now have first hand knowledge of just how these cuts are affecting even front line services and I would consider it to be a reasonable debate point of some interest. Of course a political debate can be had alongside but I would hope that a practical example would have been of interest, and I note that some serious interest has been shown by some.