Hashtag: laugh/cry

On a freezing cold icy evening on 22.01.17 I reported to the council that there was a burst water main on Brockley Road outside the Rivoli Ballroom that I feared would turn the pavement into a death-trap for the unwary.

Today on 21st July I was notified by an organisation calling itself ‘lovelewisham.com’ that it had been attended to.

According to the organisations website this is - and I quote - ‘an award-winning environmental management system, established in 2004 by the London Borough of Lewisham’

Go figure, as they say …

I am not happy with Lewisham Council at all. Had to send a complaint about their customer service (I had a very unpleasant experience with them yesterday that broke my patience) Showed my complaint to my colleagues, they laughed:

Good afternoon,

I was trying to find out today through Lewisham council reception in Town Hall and through a phone number(housing option / lewisham council) about lease extention because my solicitor had told me that i had to contact my landlord if i wished to extend my lease.The property is ownedby Lewisham council so i guessed it is my landlord. The lady in reception had not got a clue what department in Council should be contacted and the woman on the phone spoke to me as if i was stupid pointing out that lease extention surely could not be done via call centre. I am absolutely disgusted with this kind of attitude and service of your customer service staff. I would also like to point out to yourself that all lewisham council staff is subsidised with the tax payers moneies and i am one of those tax payers and we are all paying for services that must be carried out to the high standards. This was not my first encounter with such horrible customer service from lewisham council staff and i am suprised that nothing has been done to improve it during all those years.

I would like the council to improve the quality of the customer service of all its staff by the end of this year. And all council staff needs to be reminded that they serve public who pays their wages from their pockets and the public has a right to be treated with respect.

Thank you for understanding.

I had the exact opposite experience - reported a dead fox in my street and it was removed within a couple of hours and I was messaged back by lovelewisham.com by noon. So pleased was I that I posted it here and tweeted the council.

@thewrongtrousers - was the repair delayed or just the notification?

When I reported the graffiti outside HOP station (via the FixMyStreet app), the council responded within 24 hours:

http://lovelewisham.com/Home/Details/8d488ca5-bbc0-4900-8f41-11be66d9a95e

Quite impressive really?

As i recall Rachael the water main got fixed in about 3 - 4 weeks. It was the notification in July that made me sigh.
Of course we have all had different experiences.

Sometimes with automated systems notifications get ‘stuck’ and then released long after the event. Good to hear the actual problem was fixed in a timely way.

If memory serves, Love Lewisham used to be a standalone app, and FixMyStreet an entirely separate operation. At some point, Lewisham have integrated their service into FixMyStreet rather than maintain their own app.

Not sure if I would describe it as timely Rachael, but hey - its long in the past now. Probably not worth mentioning with hindsight. Lets leave it there.