Councils - Page 2

Stefan · 07-01-2013, 09:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kryton

Our council is great at resurfacing local roads where the councilors live, while other roads where the councilors don't live are crumbling away.

Fixed

b0son · 07-01-2013, 11:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MercurySilver

council rocks up
unannounced no id and says he is from council

no id? 'don't believe you, now kindly **** off before I call the police and report you for impersonating a council employee'

zilo · 09-01-2013, 01:00 PM

Surf coast shire torquay victoria.

They valued our house at $750K
2 weeks later I applied for an overdraft and the bank valued the house at $550k.

The bank used the same council valuer....2 weeks apart !

I absolutely flogged their backsides in the VCAT courtroom and got my rates changed to the rate 10 years prior as compensation for them trying to stitch me up with a rate increase.

Oh..they begged me not to go public...yeah right!

**MercurySilver** · 09-01-2013, 01:12 PM

checked the p.o.box
letter from council

this should be good

letter stating what hadnt been done yet and that it was a matter of priority that we did it as soon as we could...and gave us no date
soft
was hoping to be able to go down to the council chambers and let rip
alas
not to be

i'll do it when im ready
when i have the coin to do the whole lot at once
so they can go jump as far as im concerned

BF-2K7 · 20-01-2013, 02:59 PM

I live in the inner west of Sydney, down a narrow lane. As you can imagine there is not alot of parking space available being in the city.

Most dwellings have their own garages with their roller doors bordering on the footpaths (its more an extended gutter type arrangement)

As the lane is located fairly close to the local shopping precinct we get 'shoppers' parking down our lane then off to the shops, convenient you may think, for some reason they park infront of the roller doors blocking access in and out!

So, here I am waking up to go to work (I usually start @ 10 am - shift worker) open my roller door ......... behold a car parked across my driveway, result .......... I cant get out!

I call the Local Council (who shall remain nameless)

They eventually send out a Ranger after I waited for over an hr

Ranger turns up promtly puts a ticket on the offending vehicle

OK I think thats a start, I ask the Ranger "when is the tow truck arriving?"

Ranger says "We can't tow the vehicle, we can only issue a traffic infingement notice"

I say "How am I supposed to get to work!!??"

Ranger replies "Sorry sir we cant touch the vehicle" and promptly leaves

Now, my gripe is that according to council and NSW road rules no vehicle can inhibit the access into a property, this is so emergency vehicle can access your property without obstruction. (and I assume so the residents can too)

So, I'm not alowed to interfere with this vehicle in ANY way to get it moved. I cant push it, pull it, or tow it! I cant lay a hand on it or I will be fined/prosecuted!!

This 'law' needs to be changed! The council or myself should be able to remove an offending vehicle (at the drivers expense) as they are blatantly flaunting the road rules, Police wont interfere as they have the same view as the council and say it IS a council matter.

The solution: residents are now parking their own cars infront of their own driveways to stop this happening again.

Funnily enough no tickets have been issued to the residents, however this practise is now making our garages defunked in that they cant be used to house our vehicles for fear of them being blocked in.

Oh the joys of inner city living!! *sighs*

Marquis · 20-01-2013, 03:06 PM

By some go jacks. Push him out of the way and leave it with its butt on the street and drive away

BF-2K7 · 20-01-2013, 03:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marquis

By some go jacks. Push him out of the way and leave it with its butt on the street and drive away

Ohhhh I would love too, but Im not allowed to touch it in ANY way! plus being a narrow lane theres no-where to leave it should I use the go jacks

I have however "spammed" the un-named council with pic's of the numerous offending vehicles parked across my garage.

My neighbour has resorted to delicatly placing long screws under the offending vehicles tyres so when they eventually move they have an instant puncture!! lol

I admire his thinking

xtremerus · 20-01-2013, 04:25 PM

If you move it, who is the driver going to complain to?
The screw idea came to my mind as I was reading your post.

BF-2K7 · 20-01-2013, 05:01 PM

........ well Im told (by the local Police) that I could be charged with "unlawful interference of a motor vehicle" a charge similar to attempted break-in, so I would assume the offending vehicles driver would 'complain' to the police, even though they were doing the wrong thing. Absurd really.

flappist · 20-01-2013, 05:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BF-2K7

........ well Im told (by the local Police) that I could be charged with "unlawful interference of a motor vehicle" a charge similar to attempted break-in, so I would assume the offending vehicles driver would 'complain' to the police, even though they were doing the wrong thing. Absurd really.

You know if this were a TV show like Home and Away or Neighbors the car owner would find his number plates removed and left outside a place where "undesirables" congregate and find shortly afterwards he has a whole heap of speeding and parking tickets as well as a few servo drive-offs he has to sort out.

He would then have to fight with the Sydney Council and State Traffic revenue departments who are NEVER EVER wrong and will fight using tax/rate payers money until hell freezes over rather than forgive a fine.

Of course this would only ever happen on TV..........

BF-2K7 · 20-01-2013, 05:41 PM

Bwuaaaaaahahaaa

Road_Warrior · 20-01-2013, 06:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by b0son

no id? 'don't believe you, now kindly **** off before I call the police and report you for impersonating a council employee'

Exactly. And in a previous life as a Council Development Control Officer if I turned up to someone's house without even so much as a business card I would have expected to be told to GTFO. Some of these people are their own worst enemies.

**MercurySilver** · 21-01-2013, 12:30 PM

well he hasnt come back yet
and i havent done any more work
itll prob be next month at least till we've saved some coin and are ready
theres a nice big green patch on the land where the clean septic water is pumping out

i reckon if i keep moving that hose i could get it as green as the MCG and just as big!

next door still hasnt cut his 'grass' or should i say tall yellow looking grass
the letter from the council mentioned that the guy that came around will pass on to someone else about the grass on next doors block and they will tell him to cut it

crickey id even go out there for 100 bucks and drop it all for him
dont understand, theres cows and plenty of goats over there and its still waist high

bungarra · 22-01-2013, 07:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xisled

They do not take picture of the car when they first come around, they only take the picture when the car has been there longer than it should be. The reason for this is to prove the car was parked in the spot at the time of the offence.

With parking fines going to court, it is not up to the council to prove you were parked there, it is up to the person who got fined to prove they were not parked in the spot for longer than they should. THe council will have proof such as the photo and the rangers log book.

My advice would be get a witness statement from the people who seen the car parked at the work place, and even try and get a witness in court.

Actually, which council rangers don;t take before and after photos? everyone I know of in WA that has photos have time stamped photos of when the car is first seen and the time the offence has happened to show the time frame. Maybe it is only councils in WA that do it. They started doing it when judges asked for proof when stat decs were being used by the alleged offender.

A few people got neailed for attempting to pervert the course of justice by providing stat decs in Fremantle Magistrates Cpourt including two lawyers all by East Fremantle Council Rangers having the time stamped photos of when the car first seen and when it had been past the alloted time limit or parked in the wrong area.

Road_Warrior · 22-01-2013, 08:42 PM

^^^^ Yes and they have been doing this for quite a while now as I got pinged by East Freo Council Rangers and they had photos and this was back in 2002-2003.

xisled · 23-01-2013, 01:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bungarra

Actually, which council rangers don;t take before and after photos? everyone I know of in WA that has photos have time stamped photos of when the car is first seen and the time the offence has happened to show the time frame. Maybe it is only councils in WA that do it. They started doing it when judges asked for proof when stat decs were being used by the alleged offender.

A few people got neailed for attempting to pervert the course of justice by providing stat decs in Fremantle Magistrates Cpourt including two lawyers all by East Fremantle Council Rangers having the time stamped photos of when the car first seen and when it had been past the alloted time limit or parked in the wrong area.

I have never seen any council ranger take a before picture. I work in St Kilda road (Melbourne). If the ranger had to take pictures before, the ranger would have taken about 10000 plus photos in one day. That would be just for the cars parked legally.

I have only ever seen and heard of a ranger taking a photo after the car has been parked to long. They just chalk mark the tyre.

bungarra · 23-01-2013, 05:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xisled

I have never seen any council ranger take a before picture. I work in St Kilda road (Melbourne). If the ranger had to take pictures before, the ranger would have taken about 10000 plus photos in one day. That would be just for the cars parked legally.

I have only ever seen and heard of a ranger taking a photo after the car has been parked to long. They just chalk mark the tyre.

Must be slack in Victoria, every council Ranger in WA is required to have before and after photos as part of SOP's even if you take a million photos as the onus of a white chalk mark was beaten as insufficient due to the Ranger could have placed the mark then taken a photo. Most councils in WA have done away with chalk marking as some Rangers were marking the sidewall which is illegal in WA.

It was how I beat Perth City Council as they couldn't prove when the chalk mark was done but I could, the CCTV from my friends shop showed me arriving at 10am, chalk marking happening at 10:10 am and a ranger taking a photo at 10:20 and shows me walking out at 10:21 talking to the ranger and driving off at 10:25am.

Tried to do me for being over 30 minute time limit. Just need to beat them once and make them do their job right.

brenx · 27-01-2013, 08:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ugg

Surf coast shire torquay victoria.

They valued our house at $750K
2 weeks later I applied for an overdraft and the bank valued the house at $550k.

The bank used the same council valuer....2 weeks apart !

I absolutely flogged their backsides in the VCAT courtroom and got my rates changed to the rate 10 years prior as compensation for them trying to stitch me up with a rate increase.

Oh..they begged me not to go public...yeah right!

I think I am being rorted too by Pakenham shire council. They valued my house at 440k yet it'd be lucky if it's really worth 300k. $1200 a year! Yet I know people in Bayswater with a 500k house paying $1100. Figure that one out?!?!

cheap · 28-01-2013, 09:31 AM

My issues with council:

The insane influence greenie left wing eco-terrorists have on councils, it isn't possible to remove weeds or trim trees without having to fill in paperwork or having someone come out to review the situation. The moment you do something without approval on your land they come down hard. The moment you point out that their own guidelines state that a plant is a weed and needs to be removed they ignore their own rules. I've had to write personally to Campbell Newman (when he was Lord Mayor) to seek intervention. IMO councils are the ultimate nanny government.

Delays in DA approval, because the greenie left wing eco-terrorists wants my 624 square meters of land to save the entire planet. 9 months for DA approval.

Frequent visits from the council during construction. I should have taken an AVO out against them. Why because some nutter who lives a couple of streets away has the right to ring council and make outrageous complains about everything. This all added significantly to my cost and blew out the schedule, did I get any compensation, NO only grief ! I should be allowed to know the identity of the complainer but they have more rights than I do !

**MercurySilver** · 30-01-2013, 01:37 PM

still waiting for council approval so i can get a half meter wide trench dug so we can get internet hooked up properly to the telstra pit
need to dig about 15 meters on the edge of my fence line on the council side, in a rural zoned area where the blocks are over 2 acres
been waiting since nov 10 or 14th i think

in fact im off to ring the guys who are meant to be doing the work to see if council has actually got off their *** and approved the dig.

**MercurySilver** · 30-01-2013, 01:59 PM

joke
the people that did the digging for telstra no longer do any work for them
gee i wonder why
so i ring telstra to see if council have given approval and they have no idea and will have to get back to me

good lord
useless

oh
but telstra billed us the 300 bucks to hook the phone line up (that we are still waiting for) back in nov

my_gxl · 19-02-2013, 03:08 PM

Just called the council about a pot hole that flattened my tyre and flat spotted the rim...it 2m inside main roads terittory, and I have to report it. They won't pass the info on.

On a side note, I am going for an RWC tomorrow, and now have a rooted rim and tyre-real happy.
Anyone wanna report it for me?
Enough people do it, then I call, and I get the tyre/rim fixed cos they know about the hole.

Start of Linkfield road, brendale, where southpine road ends. Its right in the wheel path where the slip lane joins.
Hole is 6 inches deep, about 2 foot long total, about 1 foot wide. Was that size at 9am this morning.

I have to go fix my car up before tomorrow.

Feathers · 20-02-2013, 01:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bungarra

Must be slack in Victoria, every council Ranger in WA is required to have before and after photos as part of SOP's even if you take a million photos as the onus of a white chalk mark was beaten as insufficient due to the Ranger could have placed the mark then taken a photo. Most councils in WA have done away with chalk marking as some Rangers were marking the sidewall which is illegal in WA.

It was how I beat Perth City Council as they couldn't prove when the chalk mark was done but I could, the CCTV from my friends shop showed me arriving at 10am, chalk marking happening at 10:10 am and a ranger taking a photo at 10:20 and shows me walking out at 10:21 talking to the ranger and driving off at 10:25am.

Tried to do me for being over 30 minute time limit. Just need to beat them once and make them do their job right.

Apparently the matter is still before council, and they will make a decision at the end of this month to drop the fine or not.

There is a lot of construction around the area Dad's fine occurred, so I bet they're deliberately targeting the tradies working there.
I popped down to the shops for lunch the other day and there were 4 rangers standing around having a chat on the corner. As I walked back to my car to leave they started taking photos of other cars.

devilcv8 · 20-02-2013, 03:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brenx

I think I am being rorted too by Pakenham shire council. They valued my house at 440k yet it'd be lucky if it's really worth 300k. $1200 a year! Yet I know people in Bayswater with a 500k house paying $1100. Figure that one out?!?!

You're complaining about $1200 a year.

I'm paying $2100 a year each on council rates for the house in Goulburn and the one in Bega. I'd love to only be paying $1200.

brenx · 20-02-2013, 05:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by devilcv8

You're complaining about $1200 a year.

I'm paying $2100 a year each on council rates for the house in Goulburn and the one in Bega. I'd love to only be paying $1200.

My lands on 325sqm my guess is you have a large block of land. My block is what I'd call a unit block. I can't even park a 3rd car in the driveway. Like I could at my old house. That's why I can't see how they justify the $. I was paying $1200 in the Casey shire for 610sqm. With a similar house/land value. Yet I know people of 3/4 acre and acre lots paying $1100 with $500k plus house/land. I can't figure it out

2011G6E · 20-02-2013, 05:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xtremerus

If you move it, who is the driver going to complain to?
The screw idea came to my mind as I was reading your post.

Big roofing screws jammed in front of and behind each tyre...

devilcv8 · 21-02-2013, 01:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brenx

My lands on 325sqm my guess is you have a large block of land. My block is what I'd call a unit block. I can't even park a 3rd car in the driveway. Like I could at my old house. That's why I can't see how they justify the $. I was paying $1200 in the Casey shire for 610sqm. With a similar house/land value. Yet I know people of 3/4 acre and acre lots paying $1100 with $500k plus house/land. I can't figure it out

Bega is 1100sq/m and Gouldburn 600sq/m.
I believe Im being gouged more by these 2 councils, especially when the Bega lands rate is based on land value of $75,000.

Feathers · 28-03-2013, 05:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Feathers

Apparently the matter is still before council, and they will make a decision at the end of this month to drop the fine or not.

So, Dad rang Hurstville Council to find out what's going on, even after sending in the stat decs from our co-workers with his letter.
Council are not doing to drop the fine.

The only way he can get the matter heard in court is to apply online with SDRO, so I've just done that for him.
Hope I get to be there to watch him in action in court. They've made a huge mistake, holding up a fine that was clearly fraudulent to begin with.

saam · 28-03-2013, 07:50 PM

Have you heard of the aussie speeding fines website?

Its people who are sick and tired of counsil issuing fines when they are not allowed to legally

take a look, have a ready , its usefull info

JAJH · 28-03-2013, 08:52 PM

I've had a couple of issues with Local Councils, one with the Gold Coast and the other with Brisbane City Council.

1. At the end of my estate there is a roundabout at the end of the road. This is a relatively little used roundabout but one day I was travelling through without realizing part of the road had subsided due to rain and subsequently hit the underside of my GTP and cracked the front spoiler. I rang council, asked who I needed to contact (my local MP), sent her a well-written letter and photos of the damage and the offending area. Within a couple of weeks they replied they had sought advice from their internal legal department and had concluded I had a valid case and would pay for the damage. The road, strangely enough, was repaired very shortly afterwards. A small win for the common man I thought.

2. On a separate occasion I had parked in Brisbane city in a side street where there was 2 hour parking with no meter. There was already a car parked in front of me who had taken up too much room so I had to park a little too close behind him so as not to infringe on the drive behind me. Within the 2 hours I came out to find a parking ticket with the offence of parking within 1 metre of another vehicle. It was a debatable distance but the one thing I noticed was the car in front also had a ticket for the same offence, so I thought "how can we both be guilty of the same offence?". So, I write to the Council pleading my case and after 2 or 3 letters over the next 12 months they responded it wasn't in the Council's interest to pursue the matter and the ticket was withdrawn. Another small win for the common man.
Don't underestimate the power of a well worded letter...it HAS to be responded to, whereas as a conversation or phone call can easily be disregarded.