OR - How 'Its Not My Problem' pervades everything.
Yesterday I walked past a stinking overflowing drain. There was untreated sewage coming out of a drain cover in the grounds of a block of flats, running across the pavement and down the Balcombe Road and into a drain.
Having observed this for around a week, I had, like others, assumed that someone would do something about this. I decided it should be me.
I took a quick look online and it transpires I need to call Crawley Borough Council's Environmental Health Department. So I did. They with great speed and efficiency on hearing the word 'drain' put me through to Thames Water. They took the details and my phone number. To their credit, they called back and said they had been to the block of flats twice, but as the issue appeared to be in the grounds of the flats it was nothing to do with them.
I called the Environmental Health and told them what Thames Water had told me. With a bit of a sigh, they took the details and said they'd 'have a look'.
Today as I walked past there was a drain clearance company. Hurrah!!! They told me that they'd only been told about it yesterday.
The question I can't get out of my head is why didn't Thames Water call the Environmental Health people? Have things really got so bad that they phone a member of the public back to say 'not our problem' rather than calling the right agency to sort it?
The second question is, why didn't someone who lives in the flats feel rather more concerned and undertake the calls that I did?
Jon
25th April 2012
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