There are times when I think that it is better to try and sort out the daftness or incompetence of Durham County Council behind the scenes. That will surprise most Labour councillors! Every time I challenge the council in public there are probably half a dozen more times when I deal with it internally.
Take the phone system for example. If I had a tenner for every time a resident has complained about not being able to get through to the council I’d be off on holiday to the Seychelles. Councillors from all parties have had a go about this, particularly last year when the benefits department was in a right state.
But when it comes to complaining about our own council phones and IT kit is all seems to be dealt with internally. Whether this is to avoid the complaints of residents about the cost of what we are given or perhaps because residents might not be interested in the woes of councillors struggling to get their phones or tablets to work, I’m not really sure.
But recently it is becoming clear that the Council phone system is not fit for purpose and when residents can’t get through to me that’s when it starts to become serious. So if you are trying to call any councillor to their 03000 number and don’t get an answer it might not be that they are busy. Try calling the direct mobile number instead – for me it’s 07500125325, Amanda’s is 07500125333 and the best number for Mamie is 01913869006.
There is clearly a problem with the 03000 numbers which divert calls to our mobiles.What really annoys me is that this has been going on for months but because it is intermittent I don’t know when the phone is working and when it is not.
No Labour councillors have to my knowledge complained about their phones, but many opposition councillors have had problems. One independent councillor missed calls because the council put the wrong phone number on the system – a resident somewhere in the county must have received quite a few odd calls. For a while my mobile number was being diverted to a fax machine and one councillors still is today, despite it being reported months ago!
When it comes to email systems a number of councillors are struggling to get access to their emails and to use the new IT we have been given. Here it is clearly not just opposition councillors.
In fact one Labour councillors’ inbox has been full and not accepting emails for the best part of six months – quite staggering really, which ever way you look at it!
The new overpriced tablets they have given us – ridiculously overpriced – have more security on them than Chancellor Merkel’s phone – not hard admittedly – but it means that it takes up to 20 minutes from turning them on to using them! So much for a 21st Century council.
Spending hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers money on phones, tablets, printers, laptops etc for councillors is enough to wind up any one of us when you see services being cut, but when it doesn’t work properly it’s double the insult.