One of my local residents has experienced a series of shocking service collapses from Croydon's failing Labour Council.
Made to wait two months, she had booked and paid £52.28 for some bulky waste to be collected from her property in August. It was finally cleared in October.
The resident had placed her bulky waste at the rear of her property and had informed the Council of the location - this was acknowledged by the Council at the time in writing.
After nearly two months of waiting and chasing herself (including not unreasonably asking for a refund), the resident got in touch with me to ask for help.
I got an immediate reply from the Council saying:
There were no notes from resident advising the waste would not be presented at the front of the property. I see the resident has attached the letter but this is an arrangement for weekly collections. There is a notes section on the bulky waste order where this should have made the crew aware. Veolia will not be able to return to collect.
Sending the evidence across, I insisted that Veolia go back to complete the agreed transaction. A resident had paid for a service, not through Council Tax but specifically a bolt-on fee for bulky waste collection, and the Council had failed to deliver. None of us would tolerate this from any other business providing a service.
I then hear from the resident that the waste had been collected - but the Council has no idea by whom.
The Council Officers did not properly complete notes properly on their logging system. Fail.
The Council refused to provide a refund despite completely failing to deliver the service sold. Fail.
The Council refused to go back to collect the waste when it was clearly their error. Fail.
The Council still has no idea whether Veolia cleared up the mess. Fail.
At every level the system failed to deliver for this resident - and it's not the first time. She has also been made to wait two months for her 'fortnightly' garden waste to be collected earlier this year, and the same happened again in 2020!
This is not just one person's failure, this is systemic failure - and the blame for that lies with the Administration: Croydon's failing Labour Council.
