The Litter Tray

Jason,

Not sure what the post is all about but if it is "genreal frustation,  I spent 3hs at Moorfields Hospital with  a friend and kept on checking  Naim forum and others. I'll dump Moorfields for the waiting time and thank the forum for keeping me busy while waiting.

PS.

On the other hand the guy that saw us was absolutely brilliant and they are the best in the world.

I have an ongoing dispute with Croydon Council,who i consider to be a load of scumbags. They are the Ryanair of councils and their slogan should be.....glad to screw you mugs.

It started some 2 years ago when i had a close look at our Council tax bill. On it, it stated......The easiest.quickest and CHEAPEST way to pay your tax is by Direct Debit. Being one that likes to save money if pos i e mailed them wanting to know how much cheaper it was paying by D/D. NO REPLY.

So e mailed them again and again wanting an answer. Months later i got my reply and they admitted D/D was no cheaper than paying by any other method.

I then presumed(silly me) that on the next years tax bill they would have changed the wording and left out the fact that D/D was no cheaper. Did they hell,the wording has not changed at all and this scumbag Council is telling porkies to every single taxpayer in the Borough.

DO check your Council tax bill and let me know what your bill says!!

Mista H

Well, DD is the quickest and probably the cheapest too - no posting a cheque, no going the the council office to pay cash or by debit card and having to pay parking charges and your time...?

p.s. I work for no council but do pay by DD

Definitely agree about Croydon Council. Absolutely rubbish. The town centre is allowed to fall into a decrepit state with more and more empty retail outlets. Meanwhile the council oversees never-ending increases in parking fees and over-zealous traffic enforcement, seeking to screw money from motorists for any transgression of hard-to-understand traffic regulations. A vicious circle that deters visitors and shoppers thus leading to more failed retailers. Oh, but the council pumps money into its pathetic campaign to get Croydon given city status! Nothing more than naked self-interest on the part of the councillors trying to puff up their status.

Rant over. I feel better for that.  

MDS

How is it CHEAPER??   I dont pay Bank charges and saving 50P on a stamp is not what i call saving money.

Mista H

The point here is that paying by direct debit saves the Council money, compared to taking payment by cheque or cash. Their bank charges are lower, and there is less debt recovery to do, as money comes in on time.

With reductions in grants, and the Council Tax capped, councils need to save money, either by cutting back on front line services, or streamlining the back office. While they may be wasting money on city status bids and so on, would you rather they economised on services to residents, or saved money on bank charges and admin.

Ranting at Councils for being sensible seems odd to me when there are so many more rant- worthy topics.

such as......

Why do dog owners put their dog's shit in a plastic bag and then hang the bag from a tree. What the hell is the use of that. Perhaps they should eat it, or have their foul mutt destroyed as they are clearly too stupid to take ownership of a dependent creature.

Got very frustrated around 2 years ago when the famous scientific document came available, describing that human ears cannot hear the difference between 44khz/16bit and high resolution recordings. It was the period that hi-res recordings became more and more available, and that also Naim started to embraze hi-res.

My frustration was especially in the fact that I neither understood the arguments from the study, nor the arguments on this forum basically saying "whatever scientific arguments are saying, ignore them, Hi-Res just sounds better" ... In the meantime I also conluded for myself, to just listen and try. Up till now, I sometimes can hardly hear the difference between a regular and a Hi-Res album. Sometimes the difference is crystal clear in favour of Hi-Res. Even sometimes Hi-Res albums I bought (i.e. HdTracks) just sound average.

Me and Hi-Res are still not on speaking terms :-)

I am all for councils saving money,and yes i do know that D/D saves them money,but Croydon council are telling people LIES. They should be HONEST with their tax payers. If D/D saves them money then be honest and say so.Stop treating taxpayers like idiots. Most councils have been top heavy and have had overpaid donkeys for years. They need to get rid of a lot of deadwood and start cutting back on the stupid salaries some are paid.

Go back to being a Lord H/H you were a much nicer person then.

Mista h

I'm still the same happy bunny I always was. I just find people slagging off councils ( calling their staff liars and overpaid donkeys is hardly nice, is it, given the circumstances they are currently working in ) somewhat irritating. My irrational comments about dog poo are no worse than yours about the council, so perhaps you need to be nicer too. 

You are quite right your lordship Croydon Council are just wonderful,love em to bits. As for me,well i am just a total and utter arsehole.

Mista h

Having children to take to school dos not imbue you with the right to:
block the road, park on cycle lanes or roundabouts, turn without indicating, stop without looking, or throw open your door without checking.

When I went to school I used to walk or take the bus. It's just possible there are more predatory paedophiles and kidnappers about these days*, but I very much doubt that the risk to a child's well-being is anywhere near as great as it is by getting a lift from one of these moronic jelly-brains.

* Actually I seriously suspect there aren't, although I have no statistics either way.

I've learnt that I must always be aware of school term times so that I can avoid the 3 traffic jams caused by local mums collecting/delivering their offspring.

I can understand the large numbers picking up from the (very good) secondary school in the village, as kids come from outside the village to attend, but the infant and junior schools are almost exclusively filled by kids from the village.  Having lived here for >30 years, I can vouch for the fact that you can walk to any of these schools in 10-15 minutes from anywhere in the village.

So, why do so many mums insist on using their cars to collect the little darlings?  To make it worse they start gathering about 20 minutes before letting out time, presumably to socialise.

Thankfully I can get out of the village onto the A38 without having to negotiate the traffic jams, although it does mean I have to accelerate hard to get onto the dual carriageway (VERY short run in on that alternative slip road)

Also, is it just me, or are most (at least locally) huge 4 wheel drive vehicles driven by women - most of whom seem not to have indicators and think that the laws of physics don't apply to them when the road is icy?