NOTEBOOK: WHO DO THEY THINK THEY ARE?

NOTEBOOK by BILL HEANEY

Never mind the state of the roads and potholes, you don’t have to go far to discover that West Dunbartonshire Council’s problems stretch way beyond these matters, serious though they may be.

We warned the Council not so long ago that the best way to attract bad publicity for any organisation would be to publish a column inviting complaints from their customers.

But West Dunbartonshire Council refuse to take advice from anyone, The Democrat in particular, and even refused to correct the spelling of the Pavilion Cafe at Levengrove Park when we told them what they were painting on their notice boards and printing in their publicity was incorrect.

Look at the signs and then look at the dictionary and you will find there’s one L of a difference.

They paid attention though, and childishly sought out a spurious reason for banning me and refusing to answer any questions from The Democrat, which residents receive completely FREE.

There’s been an avalannche of deserved publicity following the death of Pope Francis on Monday.

Francis, we are told, railed against what he termed the “pathology of power” and those in the Catholic Church who, he said, “feel themselves ‘lords of the manor’—superior to everyone and everything”.

This sage remark does not apply to the Church alone, of course.

Where it does apply though is in Church Street, in the West Dunbartonshire Council headquarters.

They are prepared to lap up publicity at any price. Even if they are economical with the truth.

This week’s Council Complaints Column on social media shows that the Church Street spinners and their bosses appear still to be addicted to publishing complaints which show them up in a bad light. I always believed it was supposed to be the other way round, .

Despite the fact that they are averse to advice from outside the walls of their £16 million plus version of Xanadu, I think it’s time these gauleiters started telling the truth.

Bin collections may be an unimportant subject when such matters are looked at in the round.

But why can’t the Council tell the paying public whether or not they are switching to a three weekly schedule for bin collections?

And when, if ever, they are going to do the right thing and scrap the brown bin charges, which will cost more to administer than will be gained from imposing them.

Who told me the public are unhappy about almost everything to do with bin collections in West Dunbartonshire? The Complaints Column has to take the blame for that.

And that column is produced by their so-called Communications Department which in this age of financial chaos is said to have an annual budget of around £400,000.

Even in matters such as bin collections, the spinners can’t – or won’t – cut the mustard and leave hundreds of unanswered questions out there.

“We’ll pass this on to the team,” they tell complainers who complain in addition to their initial complaint that they seldom get a straight answer to a straight question.

Lorna Nugent asked: “If bin collections are going to every three weeks, are the council going to supply households with extra bins?  There is no way a large family can go three weeks with only one bin.”