By Shane Ralph
Why are Stanford and Corringham residents paying Council Tax?
No police station, very low police patrols, hundreds of potholes on all roads, hit and miss bin collections, poor street lighting, ineffective road gritting and a recently closed local area council office!
When you recieve your new Council Tax demand; take at look at what your money is being spent on. If you live in Stanford and Corringham you might wonder if your money is even being used.
A year ago Stanford and Corringham lost its Police station and it seem that Police patrols in the area are very low. This has lead to some residents of the area setting up their own patrols and a Neighbourhood watch.
Recently there has been a spate of break ins and motorbike thefts in the area. When reported to the Police, we are told they will make extra patrols in this area, but they are never seen.
Maybe the Police don’t wish to risk damaging their patrol cars because of the areas hundreds of potholes! Southend Road is particularly bad right now, I understand that the whole road it set to be redone, this is of no help to the drivers that are hitting the holes on a daily bases though and you wonder how long it will be before a motercyclist has a serious accident due to the one.
Their chances of seeing them are also being reduced by the poor street lighting. This year the time to repair a faulty street light seems to be getting longer and longer, this also increases the risk of tripping over one of the many cracked footpaths or in more recent weeks walking into a wheelie bin thats been left out in the road or blocking a path, this may be rare as it seems bin collections in the area have become a bit of a lottery.
Residents talk on Facebook and bet on if all their bins will be emptied that week and celebrate if two out of three are done.
In the recent cold weather it might be a case that the refuse collectors do not wish to come into the area due to the pooly gritted roads. A few weeks ago the roads in the area were gritted at 5pm but by 9pm the roads were sheet ice and this seems to have lead to cars sliding down Church Hill and Abbots Drive in Stanford.
We cannot even report our problem to our local office as they have now closed it. Recently, I reported flytipping outside my back gate and I was told to contact my local office to see when it would be collected, I pointed out this was not now possible but they told me that they can email them for me.
It took 5 weeks for the flytipping to be collected.
I am at a loss as to why we are paying Council Tax!
Shane. My first reaction upon seeing your letter was “Aah, another ranting about TC. But on reading it again I realised that Yes, we don’t always get a good service for our Council Tax. If TC can’t cope, they should admit it and put their hands up and stop giving us excuses!
The Corringham Forum actually had the Thurrock Council out of hours area officer available to be attacked (for want of better word) in the face of the attendee’s that night and was offered a new office in Grover House in Corringham as a place they could use in the meantime. Hand up how many people think that Thurrock Council will take up that offer. Not many hands, I bet, lol.
There is too much Health and Safety connection to Thurrock Council these days, Health and Safety so close everything and stop giving us the service. That’s the reason why we really pay our council tax for. Bureaucratic, no nonsense Council waste, that’s what our money is supporting.