Pot holes filled - success

The pot holes in Lilyfield that I reported on Wednesday have all been filled in.

See - all you have to do is report them.

Testing, testing...

John Rolfe, the "public defender" at the Daily Telegraph has started a campaign to get councils to fix basic services - like pot holes in our streets.

Good on him.

Canada Bay Council is generally pretty good at fixing pot holes - if you bother to tell them where they are. When I spot a pot hole, I try and photograph it, then email it to Council along with the location and approximate size. In some cases, I've reported one I've seen on the way to work and then found that it's been fixed by the time I've headed for home. The key thing is letting Council know they've got a problem - they can't be everywhere at once.

We've had some heavy rain around here lately, and possibly as a result, at least a dozen pot holes have opened up in Perry Lane, Lilyfield (near Le Montage). Most are the size of dinner plates or larger, and a few inches deep.

By the look of all those tar patches, plenty of pot holes have opened up here previously.

I emailed the top photo to Leichhardt Council on Wednesday morning, and got a response just after lunch. The pot holes have been logged. I go past here every few days - I'll keep an eye on how long it takes them to fill them in.

This is not a swimming pool

I hate the fact that you can't walk or ride around The Bay when it rains without having to trudge through an endless stream of deep puddles in the Leichhardt area. The existing path has been laid down with no thought as to how water is supposed to drain away. Instead of building up the path in the middle so that water drains towards the edges, Council has instead built a concave path, so water runs into the middle and stays there.

There is only one drain grate along the entire path, and it isn't at the lowest point so it doesn't do much good. The entire path is built at or below the level of the surrounding turf, so water running off the hill on the right runs straight onto the path and settles there. The drainage is so bad, puddles hang around for days after any rain.

I sent the above photo to the Mayor of Leichhardt 3 months ago with a plea that when the next section of path was built, that drainage be factored in - he never bothered to respond. If the Romans could build well drained roads 2000 years ago, I don't see why we can't build properly drained paths today. A road engineer would never dream of building a road without thinking about drainage - why then do we spend taxpayers money on building paths without thinking the same way? Conceptually, they are the same - a ribbon of concrete. Just because one carries bikes or people rather than cars, doesn't mean that drainage should be ignored.

As the Mayor is ignoring me, and work is about to start on the next section of path, I dashed off a letter to the General Manager today. Maybe he'll take note - I asked him to ensure that his staff or contractors build a path, rather than a canal or a swimming pool.

You abandon at your peril

The registration sticker of a car abandoned in Lilyfield.  Reported to Leichhardt Council via email.  

I went past the sites this week of four other cars and a boat that I have reported as abandoned since Christmas - all have been removed.  Our streets can't be treated as dumping grounds for cars when the owners can no longer bother to fix or register them.

RailCorp pwned

The history - late in 2008, I got a letter from RailCorp suggesting that I ask the local council to clean their rail bridge.  I didn't see why a council should be responsible for cleaning a rail bridge, but I did as was suggested and contacted Leichhardt Council.  I got their response today.

The response from Council to RailCorp is polite and structured in the usual bureaucratic fashion (I have written hundreds and hundreds of letter like this), but in essence, they are telling RailCorp to pull their head in and to not try to offload maintenance activities to councils.

Good on them.  I rang Leichhardt today and left a message for Allan Willding to let him know that he is a legend.

RailCorp vs Leichhardt Council

This letter is pretty self-explanatory.  I'm still waiting for a response though - it's been nearly 3 weeks.

27 February 2009

Councillor Jamie Parker

Mayor

Leichhardt Municipal Council

PO Box 45

Leichhardt NSW 2040

Dear Mr Parker

Removal of graffiti from railway structures in Leichhardt

I have had a series of correspondence with RailCorp since May 2008 regarding the removal of graffiti from a rail bridge at Charles St, Leichhardt (near the corner of Darley St).  

The last response from RailCorp in November suggested that I contact your Council in order to have it removed.  Personally, I doubt that the removal of graffiti from railway bridges is a Council responsibility, but I did phone Leichhardt Council in November to report it.

I would appreciate it if you would approach RailCorp and ask them to clean up the bridge in question, and assist them with any road closures that may be required to repaint or clean the bridge.

Yours sincerely

Abandoned car - followup

I reported this unregistered car to Leichhardt Council last week.  A ranger rang me yesterday to say that they'd followed up, and the owner has quickly arranged to have the car registered.

How they managed to get it registered when it is in this condition, I don't know.  The ranger was scratching his head about that too (metaphorically, over the phone).

Well, if it's registered, it's registered, and there is nothing anyone can do about it.

Big thumbs up though to the ranger at Leichhardt Council for:

• Acting on my report so quickly, and
• Most importantly, phoning me back to give me an update (that's a first from a Council).

Sign pushed over - Fairlight St, Lilyfield

This appears to be a clear cut case of malicious damage - someone has lifted the sign out of its hole and dumped it on the verge.  Something for Leichhardt Council to take care of.

AGL site in Lilyfield

The site that I am referring to is at the bottom of Lilyfield Rd, next to where the City West Link crosses the Hawthorne Canal.  For at least six months now, I have been driving past and cursing Energy Australia for not painting the vandalised equipment cabinets that are clearly visible from the road.  

Well, yesterday I went and had a closer look, and found that I was cursing the wrong company.  It appears that the cabinets, painted the same colour as those of Energy Australia, actually belong to someone else.  As far as I can make out, they belong to AGL.  I say "as far as I can make out" because none of the equipment in the area has a tag on it identifying the owner.

I visited the AGL website and did a search for graffiti - no useful information was returned.

I then tried using the "contact us" web page, and it returned an error.

I tried calling 131 245, and found that it was a waste of time.

I rang the corporate office on 9921 2999, and they forwarded my call to 131 245!  

I then just pressed any old number and spoke to an operator, and they told me to contact the local Council.  I asked specifically whether Council's have permission to paint AGL assets, and they said yes, it's fine.

I rang Leichhardt Council on 9367 9222 and gave them the details and the Council is going to take care of it.  They try and fix this sort of thing within 48 hours, according to the lady that took my call.  

Here is one of the cabinets.  

And here are the rest.

The only indication that this might belong to AGL are these stickers, and even those don't have a company name on them.  However, they do contain the AGL logo.

I've also written the following letter to the GM of AGL:

---------

Mr Michael Fraser

Managing Director and CEO

AGL Energy Ltd

Locked Bag 1837

St Leonards NSW 2065

31 July 2008

 

 Dr Mr Fraser 

Problems reporting graffiti on AGL assets 

I tried to contact AGL today in order to report vandalism to what appears to be some of your assets.  

I have posted a map and a series of photos of some vandalised equipment cabinets at: 

http://notsep.blogspot.com/2008/08/agl-site-in-lilyfield.html 

I initially tried to use the contact form on your website to report this vandalism, but it was not working.  I also tried searching your website for information on how to report graffiti, but the search returned no useful information regarding AGL’s approach to graffiti and its removal. 

I have gone past the vandalised equipment cabinets on a number of occasions and seen maintenance crews working on the equipment either in these cabinets or in the manholes, seemingly blissfully unaware of the graffiti right in front of their noses.  

I am unsure whether these assets even belong to AGL – none of the equipment cabinets has an identifying tag or label or a contact phone number, and I could not find an asset number on any of them. 

I started by calling 131 245, but that number is useless for reporting graffiti. 

I then rang your corporate switchboard on 9921 2999, and all they did was put me through to 131 245!  I did manage eventually to talk to an operator, who told me that the local Council takes care of graffiti on your assets.  It would be helpful if that information alone was available on your website. 

I am therefore requesting the following: 

1. that you fix up the “contact form” on your website
2. that you publish some information about how to get graffiti removed from your assets on your website
3. that you instruct your maintenance crews to report graffiti through the appropriate channels in order to have it removed 

You might also want to think about putting some proper asset tags on your public property. 

If this site does not belong to AGL, I’d appreciate if you could tell me who it does belong to. 

I have reported this site to Leichhardt Council and asked them to clean it up. 

I look forward to your response. 

Yours sincerely

Not somebody else's problem