Can someone explain this to me

[Ronin]

The local council decided in their wisdom to replace the water mains running out front of our yard. 3 weeks of mud and slush and general messyness ensued.
Sales of course are affected by this
Hey look thats life I understand and not whinging about that.
BUT this morning theres another bunch of diggers out front.
The council are once again digging up. WHY? to run a new sewer line through.
Now where in gods name is the sense in that? Dig a brand new trench and disrupt traffic for another 3 weeks.
Yes folks THIS is where ya rates money is going.
No doubt we'll get a leaflet soon to say the telco's or underground power supply guys need to dig up again. ARGGG

Simple. Skiddy has a job at the council.

[Banditbandit]

yes, of course it is if you're 5!

dilligaf ...

[Str8 Jacket]

dilligaf ...

Yes

[rainman]

Three kids with a Commodore 64 and a 300 BAUD modem ought to sort that out.

I think the problem is political, not technical.

The reason regarding budgets holds some truth.

Never attribute to malice that which can be satisfactorily explained by incompetence.

To be fair, government (local or central) is really difficult and therefore harder to organise than many other pursuits. Much more tricky than just making and shipping stuff. And because everyone whinges about the waste of their taxes and rates, it's not terribly well rewarded, so doesn't attract the very bestest (although I have worked with some smart and capable buggers in various levels of government) so it's a vicious cycle, innit?

Just to make things more exiting, rumour has it that Rodney's SuperScrewup is generally dropping wages and conditions for those lucky enough to retain their jobs post-1 Nov, so morale is taking a beating, and service/motivation is likely to slip rather than improve. Of course when it has almost fallen to bits the grown ups will have to step back in and fix it all up again. By which time Rodders will have stolen off with the family silver. No surprises there.

[tigertim20]

The local council decided in their wisdom to replace the water mains running out front of our yard. 3 weeks of mud and slush and general messyness ensued.
Sales of course are affected by this
Hey look thats life I understand and not whinging about that.
BUT this morning theres another bunch of diggers out front.
The council are once again digging up. WHY? to run a new sewer line through.
Now where in gods name is the sense in that? Dig a brand new trench and disrupt traffic for another 3 weeks.
Yes folks THIS is where ya rates money is going.
No doubt we'll get a leaflet soon to say the telco's or underground power supply guys need to dig up again. ARGGG

im pretty sure you can do something about the loss of income through your local council

[pzkpfw]

I think the problem is political, not technical.

Yeah, pretty much my point.

[onearmedbandit]

Never attribute to malice that which can be satisfactorily explained by incompetence.

Ha, no malice whatsoever. It never pays to assume. My brother is high up in one of the largest contractors in NZ, he's told me first hand that councils will hurriedly put out work towards end of year budgets, and overspend as well.

[FROSTY:Me]

Just an update and a request for advice. Currently EVERY fenceline ion the yard has either a ruddy great hole in the ground by it, a great pile of dirt by it or both. Somebody mentioned loss of income. Given it has without question affected the companys sales
(Go figure when people coundn't even park outside the yard let alone come in)

[pete376403]

Ha, no malice whatsoever. It never pays to assume. My brother is high up in one of the largest contractors in NZ, he's told me first hand that councils will hurriedly put out work towards end of year budgets, and overspend as well.

this could explain why Upper Hutt City Council have a contractor ripping up the footpaths in my street and relaying them, even though they (the footpaths) are in perfectly acceptable condition (there's the odd crack and bit of uneveness, but not to justify relaying about a kilometer of footpath)

[p.dath]

I think a good idea to solve this kind of issue is to simply have the council declare a maintenance window - a bit like how your bike gets a maintenance window every 6,000km or your car every 10,000km.

For each area, say they will only give a permit to dig up the street once every six months for 4 weeks. Ideally, the maintenance window should be immediately prior to road maintenance when re-sealing is done.

If there is a schedule of when works can be done, then infrastructure providers could better plan.