Technorama

I've had two different experiences of trying to use local government services to get pot holes fixed and fly tipped rubbish collected:

The 1st experience is that because I have contacted them, I am dealt with (but they do not protectively search out work!).

The 2nd is that they do not have resource to deal with the requests, so they assign Tickets, place requests in Queues or future aspirational Lists. Which doesn't solve the issue, and is designed to keep the customer content, the end result is they have managed to not make a service provision -- what is really needed is an expansion of resource to cover the demands on services; rather than various different ways of managing non-delivery of service!

There is a similar situation with allocation of school places in the UK. It used to be done by post-code, which meant the rich would move into the best areas which in turn would keep the average areas average. Now in Brighton it has been changed to a lottery! Which the rich will grumble about and the lucky ones from outside the old catchment area will now all have long commutes to school. Fairer? Yes. However what they should have done was bring all the schools up to the highest standard rather than devise a system to fairly allocate their limited success in running schools!