Pumpkin's rant of the day: There's No Rubbish Out the Back

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For 18 months, I've been trying to get rid of some bulky waste from my back garden. As it's a council property, they should have cleared the garden while the property was empty (i.e. before I moved in). Rather than doing so, however, they've just sent me letters, and the odd person has come round, to complain and tell me I need to get the garden tidied. Well, considering the nature of the waste, I'm not able to safely remove/dispose of it myself. As I told the people from the council, they would have the appropriate tools, safety equipment, and relevant health and safety knowledge and training in order to remove the rubbish safely. So, yes, as I couldn't do it myself, I have tried to utilise the services of people who do it for a living. That's what they're there for. After 18 months of being fobbed off with one department telling me I need to speak to another department, and going round in circles, and lied to by people saying things would be done when they clearly had no intention of doing it, someone finally turned up yesterday. I wasn't aware that they were going to turn up yesterday. I was expecting a housing officer on a different day. That would be the housing officer who, according to her email reply, is currently on leave. Well, as I got home yesterday, a neighbour called me and asked if I'd called someone about some rubbish. I said I had. My neighbour then informed me that the people who had come out to clear the rubbish said that there 'was not rubbish out the back'. Where they were looking, I don't know because I can, quite clearly, see several large items and other hazardous waste. So, it seems, they took a small amount of rubbish from a shared pathway by where we keep the bins (although they left the dead mouse), but couldn't see the large and bulky rubbish in my back garden. I can only assume that they didn't actually look as far as the garden, and only peeked around the back of the buildings and didn't take the few extra steps to my garden gate. Well, I've emailed the housing officer again. I email because that way, I have proof of contact. This is important, especially considering that that same housing officer couldn't see any evidence of more that one instance of me chasing up the situation. That particular instance wasn't even the one which included herself. I also email because, as it's the weekend, the council offices will be closed. So that's that. After 18 months of trying to get something done, it doesn't get done anyway because the council can't tell the difference between 'back garden' and 'front pathway'. I shouldn't be surprised considering most of them don't know their own backside from their elbows. One proved yesterday that he couldn't spell his own name. I thought that was just something we said as an insult but it turns out it's actually true! Anyway, I've sent another email about it. I expect I'll get a patronising letter in response but, after telling them that I'm having trouble explaining to my autistic son why he can't use the garden, I might get somewhere. I don't like using his 'disabilities' and, to be honest, he doesn't really care about using the garden, but I think that I'm more likely to get something done by playing the 'poor me' than by trying to be the normal, reasonable person who has made a perfectly reasonable request and comes across as strong, capable, and intelligent. While I'm on the subject, the same council who have not complied to a simple request of help to clear my garden have told my Mum and sister that they have to remove furniture from their front porches because, according to the man who can't spell his own name, it's rubbish and could attract rats. So the furniture that my Mum has chosen to have on her front porch, and had on her front porch, on her own private property, for over 20 years, that's suddenly a problem and they've threatened to remove her property because they think it's rubbish yet they can't manage to get rid of rubbish that they left behind which is actually a hazard. I'm sure had I been home yesterday, I could have let them know where, exactly, the rubbish was. Had I known they were coming, I may have been able to arrange for someone to be in. Saying that, the one time I was told they would be round, they never turned up anyway. So that's today's rant. I've done my best to clear up some nettles in the garden but that's not easy when you're trying to manoeuvre your way around rotting cupboards and rusting mattress springs that seem to have rooted into the soil.