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<title><![CDATA[Not Good Enough - Australia's Customer Complaints Website: Latest posts in forum(s) (Local Council)]]></title>
<link>http://www.notgoodenough.org:/index.php</link>
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<description>Consumer website NotGoodEnough.org</description>
<language>en-au</language>
<pubDate>Fri, 10 Sep 2010 21:29:03 GMT</pubDate>
<item>
	<title><![CDATA[Local Council - Parking Permits for the disabled not valid]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[This is a case of "we don't care we just want your money" by who ever issues fines these days, it's all about the dollars, very sad state of affairs.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.notgoodenough.org:/viewtopic.php?f=585&amp;t=38923</link>
	<author>DG58</author>
	<pubDate>Fri, 20 Aug 2010 02:22:55 GMT</pubDate>
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<item>
	<title><![CDATA[Local Council - Parking Permits for the disabled not valid]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Just had a learning experience and thought others in the same situation needed a heads-up before they made the same mistake. I am carer for my 91 year old mother who is frail and can only get around in a wheel chair or with a walking frame.

Mum has a parking permit so I can park in disabled bays when I take her places like shopping or to doctors. When there is no 'Disabled' bays available, these permits also allow a person to park in ordinary bays for double the marked time provided they pay the full parking fee. That rule has caused this 'learning experience'.

Last week I took her to Box Hill for treatment of her eye for macular degeneration. This has to happen every 4 weeks; she is blind in the other eye.

There is only one disabled parking bay available outside the clinic and it is limited to one hour. As the treatment takes ~1½ hours usually, I park in one of the 2 hour bays. On Friday however, the clinic was short staffed and we were in there for 2½ hours. I assumed we were right for 4 hours but when I wheeled Mum back to the car there was a ticket on the windscreen. She was already stressed enough from the clinic visit, this was another burden. 

I thought this was a mistake and wrote to Parking Patrols (Vic) to explain the double time rule for Disabled Permits. However they replied to say that carpark outside the clinic, which I thought was council owned, is privately owned by ACE Parking and they are not required to follow that rule. We have to pay the $66 or fight it in court.

I contacted the council and they informed me that if I had parked in the street I would have got the double time but not in the open carpark. Pretty poor all up.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.notgoodenough.org:/viewtopic.php?f=585&amp;t=38923</link>
	<author>djmc</author>
	<pubDate>Fri, 20 Aug 2010 01:37:49 GMT</pubDate>
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<item>
	<title><![CDATA[Local Council - No available parking in narrow streets]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Shhhh Thing!  If too many innocents learn how it works and fines go down, the councils will stop putting up perimeter signs and just put a notice in the classifieds of a single paper once per month among the legal notices and tenders, and claim that is proper notice of parking restrictions! And change them every so often to keep us off balance.

 8-[]]></description>
	<link>http://www.notgoodenough.org:/viewtopic.php?f=585&amp;t=38747</link>
	<author>computerflyer</author>
	<pubDate>Sat, 14 Aug 2010 00:50:42 GMT</pubDate>
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<item>
	<title><![CDATA[Local Council - No available parking in narrow streets]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[You have to be careful in Brisbane as not every street has parking signs HOWEVER there is a city parking area that extends 2-3 km's out into the surrounding suburbs for which you can only park for 2 hours in streets without specific parking signage.
There are large signs indicating this on major aerials into the city therefore you are deemed to have been advised.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.notgoodenough.org:/viewtopic.php?f=585&amp;t=38747</link>
	<author>Thing</author>
	<pubDate>Fri, 13 Aug 2010 00:16:38 GMT</pubDate>
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<item>
	<title><![CDATA[Local Council - No available parking in narrow streets]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[If the car is registered and there are no "no parking" or no "no standing" signs then just park along the road edge. IF it is a cul-de-sac then there will be no through traffic nand people wanting to do a u-turn can do it in someones driveway. 

I have a problem in my business in that I use a trailer on my vehicle. In some areas there are "service roads" parralel to major arterials. The local councils have decided to put restricted parking times along these service roads and left nowhere for service vehicles to pull up for short periods of time to service the properties. The driveways are not wide enough between fence and house to unload equipment and as pointed out I am not allowed to park across the footpath. They have also informed me I am not allowed to park on the median strip between the main arterial road and the service road (yet the council vehicles do this on a regular basis and contract companies doing council contracts also break these rules). I have applied to council for an exemption however they sent me some crap reply and did not even ackowledge my request for an exemption just a statement saying there is ample parking in the area, of which, for service vehicles", there are not. 

Council parking space designers and town plannners are not as smart as they perceive themselves to be.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.notgoodenough.org:/viewtopic.php?f=585&amp;t=38747</link>
	<author>aus_koala</author>
	<pubDate>Wed, 11 Aug 2010 14:20:17 GMT</pubDate>
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<item>
	<title><![CDATA[Local Council - No available parking in narrow streets]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Well the are between your property line and the street is footpath whether it has a concrete "pathway" or not. Under the council's parking regs expect to be fined. I'm not saying it's necessarily right or even fair in many circumstances but it's how it is.

One can't even park in one's own driveway if the car is on the part considered to be footpath. Nor can one park (or stop) on the street if the car obstructs the driveway even it it's your own and no one else is going to be using your driveway.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.notgoodenough.org:/viewtopic.php?f=585&amp;t=38747</link>
	<author>Legless</author>
	<pubDate>Tue, 10 Aug 2010 21:19:56 GMT</pubDate>
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<item>
	<title><![CDATA[Local Council - No available parking in narrow streets]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA["BUT you know what DG58 ? ...if you were living with in Cooee! (IPA /ku:'i:/), of my house, id be watching you like a hawk.."

How do you know i dont??? #-o 

I think you need help.   :-({|=]]></description>
	<link>http://www.notgoodenough.org:/viewtopic.php?f=585&amp;t=38747</link>
	<author>DG58</author>
	<pubDate>Fri, 16 Jul 2010 09:02:16 GMT</pubDate>
</item>

<item>
	<title><![CDATA[Local Council - No available parking in narrow streets]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[DG58, Council and the local police are no doubt watching you via satellite pictures, as I type, cultivating  that suspicious plant life in your back yard.But this isnt about You DG58, its about "sicbadserv" wondering why they were targeted with a parking fine..BUT you know what DG58 ? ...if you were living with in  Cooee! (IPA /ku:'i:/), of my house, id be watching you like a hawk.....]]></description>
	<link>http://www.notgoodenough.org:/viewtopic.php?f=585&amp;t=38747</link>
	<author>Iseveryonehappy</author>
	<pubDate>Wed, 14 Jul 2010 16:26:33 GMT</pubDate>
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<item>
	<title><![CDATA[Local Council - No available parking in narrow streets]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA["so next time you got out to the letterbox behind one of those lace curtains,someones watching you and your family's every move ... Id find out who they and then expose them to the whole neighborhood so they`d have to move."

God help us if we can't look out the window anymore because "imneverhappy" is going to make our lives miserable so much we'll have to move. [-X]]></description>
	<link>http://www.notgoodenough.org:/viewtopic.php?f=585&amp;t=38747</link>
	<author>DG58</author>
	<pubDate>Tue, 13 Jul 2010 05:11:18 GMT</pubDate>
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<item>
	<title><![CDATA[Local Council - No available parking in narrow streets]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA["We wondered how the Council knew .... Could there be a dobber in the street?

Most defiantly you have council "stooly",most likely on the payroll, every time they dob someone in..  so next time you got out to the letterbox behind one of those lace curtains,someones  watching you and your family's every move ... Id find out who they  and then expose them to the whole neighborhood so they`d have to move...either that or like that was reported here in Melbourne's second city, Dandenong, council can see from satellite pictures if your using water to wash your drive or watering your lawns .....But sicbadserv,  you've got to remember that councils got to somehow get funds  to be able to travel first class to Rome  Monte Carlo etc etc  with their partners on rate payers funds ..bad luck]]></description>
	<link>http://www.notgoodenough.org:/viewtopic.php?f=585&amp;t=38747</link>
	<author>Iseveryonehappy</author>
	<pubDate>Tue, 13 Jul 2010 01:07:51 GMT</pubDate>
</item>

<item>
	<title><![CDATA[Local Council - No available parking in narrow streets]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Brisbane City Council will fine you if you park on a footpath.  I have no argument with this.  But if the area is grassed and there is no designated footpath as such, the street is too narrow to even have a centre white line and, between 9 houses in a cul-de-sac, only 2 visitor parking spaces have been supplied; what do they expect visitors to do if both these have been taken up?  One is used permanently by a resident as their private parking spot, they have a double garage but 3 cars, and the other is used by a commuter as a park-and-ride leaving no spaces for visitors.  On the day we were issued the fine my husband had parked our car close to our daughter's house in front of her gate because both visitor parking spaces, as usual, were taken as were the spaces in her driveway.  At the time our daughter was recovering from a major foot operation, was still on crutches and had great difficulty walking, my husband also had had procedures done on both feet.  We wondered how the Council knew he had parked there as this is a small, off-the-beaten-track street and not one we have ever seen patrolled?  Could there be a dobber in the street?  My husband wrote to the Council the day he got the fine explaining the circumstances and reason for parking where he did.  They replied quoting the Council parking regulation; he replied; they replied, he rang, they sympathised but still to no avail.  This is obviously Council's way of revenue raising to harrass 70 year old pensioners who can ill afford $100 out of a meagre fortnightly pension.  The moral of this story .... don't park on the grass just in case it is designated by the Council as a footpath.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.notgoodenough.org:/viewtopic.php?f=585&amp;t=38747</link>
	<author>sicbadserv</author>
	<pubDate>Mon, 12 Jul 2010 23:56:26 GMT</pubDate>
</item>

<item>
	<title><![CDATA[Local Council - rates up/ services zero]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[I agree with iseveryonehappy re the stupid hard rubbish collection. Maroondah Council likewise has dumped this system on us.  There is rubbish in the streets ALL year round, often not being collected for over a week - so it gets nice & mushy, or scattered about.  This is from a council that worries about streetscapes! The current mayor has said that it is for the benefit of tenants (20% of the houses) and to prevent scavengers.
The old system of twice a year, worked well, and as far as I'm concerned, what about me! I'm an actual ratepayer who lives here permanently. AND they're going to increase the rates by 10%, borrow $38million for a pool(we have 3 already). What happened to good financial management and responsibility? Yet more debt for something that is a luxury not a necessity. Guess who I won't be voting for!]]></description>
	<link>http://www.notgoodenough.org:/viewtopic.php?f=585&amp;t=36379</link>
	<author>karinya9</author>
	<pubDate>Sun, 11 Jul 2010 11:02:55 GMT</pubDate>
</item>

<item>
	<title><![CDATA[Local Council - cat registration]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[You may try to do your best to come up with a better answer but the fact is THERE'S NO BETTER ANSWER, I mean why are we paying for anything? because that's that's the way it is, i don't want to pay rates, GST, tax, etc etc, BUT I HAVE TO, so if i ask WHY i have to pay? what answer am i suppose to except? 

Lets say I'm sitting at a ticket office selling tickets to the movies, you come to me and ask " why the tickets cost $10?" so how would i know why? just because.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.notgoodenough.org:/viewtopic.php?f=585&amp;t=35190</link>
	<author>DG58</author>
	<pubDate>Sun, 11 Jul 2010 02:36:20 GMT</pubDate>
</item>

<item>
	<title><![CDATA[Local Council - cat registration]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[DG58, my friend, if I was lucky enough to have a job as a cashier at my local council offices and sit on my big bottom all day in a nice warm office with good pay,I think id make it my business to know why im doing what im doing, including why people have to pay animal reg, "brain-dead cashiers" are all to common place in govt as they have more important things to think about such as will they be relieved on time for their coffee and "smoko" breaks out side the back door of council offices, and getting someone to cover while they slip away down to kmart for the 10 % off bra sale.etc etc etc ..........so your statement... I suppose if you had that job you would have had a better answer??....... Id make it my business to have a better answer DG58]]></description>
	<link>http://www.notgoodenough.org:/viewtopic.php?f=585&amp;t=35190</link>
	<author>Iseveryonehappy</author>
	<pubDate>Sat, 10 Jul 2010 19:22:15 GMT</pubDate>
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<item>
	<title><![CDATA[Local Council - cat registration]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Very funny, but how should the "brain-dead cashier" know why you have to pay anything? that person have a job and their job is to take payments from people, nothing less and nothing more, so just pay or don't have a cat. I suppose if you had that job you would have had a better answer?? i think not.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.notgoodenough.org:/viewtopic.php?f=585&amp;t=35190</link>
	<author>DG58</author>
	<pubDate>Tue, 06 Jul 2010 04:30:20 GMT</pubDate>
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<item>
	<title><![CDATA[Local Council - cat registration]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Every Time I go into my local council office, I ask the brain-dead cashier behind the bullet proof glass,why do I have to pay this cat registration? And every time I get the same stock answer ..."Because it is required by council law......etc etc .and I look at her pursed mouth as she says it and it reminds me of my pussys bottom..... Its a rip off.....]]></description>
	<link>http://www.notgoodenough.org:/viewtopic.php?f=585&amp;t=35190</link>
	<author>Iseveryonehappy</author>
	<pubDate>Mon, 05 Jul 2010 19:14:02 GMT</pubDate>
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<item>
	<title><![CDATA[Local Council - cat registration]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[All cats (all pet animals actually) should be de-sexed and microchipped at the same time.  Breeders should be registered and quality audited, as should their cats.  Far too many unwanted cats and kittens (and dogs & puppies)end up in shelters and ultimately many are put down.  I'd like to see a govt funded campaign to enable people to have their cats desexed and microchipped free.  Mine (rescued from shelters) are desexed and microchipped, and don't leave my property. I'm not paying the Council an additional 'registration' fee.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.notgoodenough.org:/viewtopic.php?f=585&amp;t=35190</link>
	<author>thehobbit</author>
	<pubDate>Sat, 26 Jun 2010 07:59:27 GMT</pubDate>
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<item>
	<title><![CDATA[Local Council - cat registration]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Councils make enough money. Maybe they should stick to their original purpose, i.e. maintain local infrastructure, public spaces and essential services instead of taking on all other kinds of stuff that is already the responsibility of the federal and state governments. Councils involve themselves in too many areas like health care, non smoking campaigns, disability services, climate change and much more. They don't do this very well, nor very efficiently. What this does do is create an expensive, confusing and wasteful duplication of services and programs. I think councillors are often, themselves, unclear about the role they are meant fulfill in their professional capacity and what the public expects from them. They have too much power,too many perks and their personal agendas and egos get in the way of efficient and effective local governance. Councils do not enjoy favorable public opinion, most people are unhappy with their performance and cost. There needs to be a review and restructuring of this system of local government. They have become intrusive, meddlesome and disregarding of the public that they are meant to serve.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.notgoodenough.org:/viewtopic.php?f=585&amp;t=35190</link>
	<author>snickerdoodle</author>
	<pubDate>Sat, 05 Jun 2010 02:03:13 GMT</pubDate>
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<item>
	<title><![CDATA[Local Council - cat registration]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[We have 2 indoor cats who never see the outside world. I object strongly to registering our cats. It's a money making exercise...nothing else!]]></description>
	<link>http://www.notgoodenough.org:/viewtopic.php?f=585&amp;t=35190</link>
	<author>Krystal</author>
	<pubDate>Wed, 02 Jun 2010 14:04:31 GMT</pubDate>
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<item>
	<title><![CDATA[Local Council - cat registration]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Having recently changed careers, and now working in local government, I'm quite surprised at how little revenue most things generate for the council.

My cat registration is $25 a year, and the cost to administer it (wages for staff to administer, sending out renewal notices, managing the database) is over $20 a year.  When I queried why they did it, they said it was to prevent feral cats, and feral owners (in the case of a family pet being put down).

If they pick up a stray cat, at least the registration enables the council to contact the owners.  If it's not registered, it goes to the pound, and is put down.  If a cat is micro-chipped, it's most likely someone's pet, and every effort is made not to put it down.

The remaining registration revenue subsidises desexing program (I got a 40% discount voucher from my council), which significantly reduces the number of feral cats over time.


If it's a tokenistic amount like under $40, it's most likely not raising much (if any) revenue at all.  If it's upwards of $50, and you can't see any benefits to animal owners, like dog poo bags or similar, then it's revenue raising.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.notgoodenough.org:/viewtopic.php?f=585&amp;t=35190</link>
	<author>Danny_b</author>
	<pubDate>Thu, 18 Mar 2010 10:00:10 GMT</pubDate>
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