Timber framed 1980s houses: resale prospects

[Mike Mitchell]

By design. It was a design feature to help first-aiders in the event of war.

MM

[Mike Mitchell]

Why oh why will people not compare like with like! A privately built timber-framed home from the likes of Potton or similar is worlds away from the crap jerry-built rabbit hutches thrown up in the 1980s.

MM

[Mary Fisher]

Why do you want to write such a book?

Mary

[Mary Fisher]

I did say "per se" :-)

Mary

[Mary Fisher]

Do you write spin for HMG by any chance?

Mary

[Mary Fisher]

That's what I've been saying, I apologise for not making myself clear.

My point is that the post code doesn't define your home town or city, your council tax does.

Exactly.

Mary Leeds

[Mary Fisher]

I bow to your greater experience :-)

Mary

[Iain Gordon]

snip

Not worth it, I've only got 6 years to do then they can stuff the job.

regards, Iain

[Iain Gordon]

snip

Mary, In 1993 I became Visually Impaired and needed to be registered as such with the Social Services Dept. As I had been attending the Bradford Royal Infirmary they were the ones who filled in the appropriate form (BD8). They sent this form off to Bradford Social Services, as this was what they normally did. After it had sat on someone's desk for a week or two someone remembered that Tyersal residents were dealt with by Leeds, so they sent it off to Leeds. After another few weeks of lying about on someone's desk the form was ready for processing. Oh! Dear, what's this? a Bradford post code. Lets send this off to Bradford. Form arrives in Bradford and hangs about for a week or two then gets sent back to Leeds who send it back to Bradford who send it back to Leeds who send it ba......... You get the picture? In all, it took over 9 months for something that should only have taken days to sort out.

Problems with the roads, drains, etc. were also difficult to resolve because of the post code issue.

Regards, Iain

[Janet Baraclough..]

The message from Mike Mitchell contains these words:

We got a leaflet through the door the other day. I think it said "In the event of terrorist attack, enter the nearest Barratt Bunker through the specially designed emergency hatch".

Janet.

[Mary Fisher]

I read what you say but there do seem to be some asumptions you can't be certain about. A telephone call should have been able to speed things up ... in my experience talking to someone on the phone always gets results.

Hmmmm ...

Mary

[Iain Gordon]

snip

In my experience, telephone calls to many Council Departments only leads to more confusion. Regards, Iain

[Mary Fisher]

You're not doing it right :-)))

Mary

[Andy Hall]

The secret is to get the name of the head of the department or somebody as senior as possible on the first call. Then bug that person daily or even more frequently until something is done.

They will soon tire of it. Being a squeaky wheel can be very effective, and keep in mind that you are paying them a ton of money so are only asking them to do what they are committing to do.

For instance, over the bank holiday weekend I assembled a collection of cardboard boxes that I wanted to throw out. I carefully flattened them and tied them together and put them out for the dustmen who collect on Tuesday mornings. They were left in the appointed place with the rest of the rubbish and the recycling which goes in tubs and is collected separately. The cardboard was too large to go into the tubs and was left alongside.

The collectors come early in the morning and neither team collected the cardboard, so I called the local authority and spoke to the duty helpdesk person in charge of managing the refuse contract with the outsource collection company.

She told me that I would have to wait until the following week. I asked why, since it was their mistake, there was no reason not to take it and the material was in the way. I was then given the story about "not their policy..." blah, blah; so asked who was in charge of waste management. He initially came out with the same nonsense but then offered to collect it later in the week, but would not give a commitment as to which day.

Sensing a fob-off, I decided that the only way was to tie him down to a commitment. I simply asked him where his office was and then whether he would like to arrange collection that day or for me to deliver the boxes to his office the following morning.

A van arrived half an hour later and took the boxes away.

Public service organisations, especially local authorities and the NHS, are paid phenomenal amounts of money to deliver a service, so it is completely reasonable to push them until they do. Unfortunately, waiting for them to respond, doesn't make it happen. They rely on people not complaining, not pushing them and being prepared to wait to get through their day. This actually doesn't help them or their customers.

.andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

[Mary Fisher]

Quite right.

Excellent! Well done. Couldn't have done better myself - except that we have a recycling collection ... but the principle is spot on.

Mary

[Hugo Nebula]

On Sat, 11 Sep 2004 00:09:04 +0100, a particular chimpanzee named chris French randomly hit the keyboard and produced:

In my (Council) job, we often deal with builders who have no idea which district they're working in, don't know the postcode, and often don't know the proper address of the house. One question which helps to tell whether they're in our district or not is, "does the house have a wheely-bin or not?"

[Mary Fisher]

You mean council builders or independents?

If they're council employees they should be better trained.

Mary

[Mike Mitchell]

Because I believe that council houses represent a very valuable part of Britain's heritage, since many designs have proved their worth over more than fifty years. These houses, whilst aesthetically not looking all that fantastic from the outside, fulfilled a purpose and were far better than the "emergency" prefabs.

Obviously, there are bad council houses to offset the good ones. But most council houses are value for money, given that the available living space is often much larger than equivalent non-council properties in the same bracket, the properties tend to attract lower prices, and are therefore very suitable for first-time buyers.

I know such a book would be hitting a niche market, but it is a book that needs to be written while there are still council houses left and people in planning departments who remember that era are still alive. Trouble is, it is such a daunting task, as there is so very little information already available on which to base a new book. My book would have the design plans of, say, half-a-dozen representative properties from around the country, detailed enough so that a complete fanatic could even build one from scratch, if so desired. The book would contain many photos and computer simulations, details of finishes used, details of floor coverings, garden sizes, roof structure, insulation (!), heating, foundations, and a lot more besides. Even in Foyles, Charing Cross Road, I found nothing remotely like this. Mostly I could only find brief paragraphs that mentioned council house building, but really only from a political/social viewpoint, not from the construction angle.

Anyway, I could go on. But this will hopefully serve to whet some readers' appetites for such a book!

MM

[Mike Mitchell]

D'you know, I really think I could!

MM

[Mike Mitchell]

Bravo, Andy! Absolutely 100% the right course. Many people see this kind of action as One-foot-in-the-grave nitpicking, or Grumpy Old Men in a final flush of protest, but I say, if we *don't* complain, then the lazy, inefficient tossers who rule our lives just get away with delivering a poor service. They get away with it far too often in my view, because most people just shrug and forget about it. Every branch of local government is riddled with incompetents and their incompetence.

MM