On Wed, 07 Jul 2010 07:58:41 -0500, Gareth Owen wrote:

The regime which took power in 1979 forced councils to give up
maintenance departments they all had and tender to private companies
instead. The one which took over in 1997 didn't change any of this.

Consequently cash-starved councils (3/4 of their money comes ,
grudgingly, from central government) can't send a few workmen round to
sort out small repairs as they would have done in the past.



But they appear to carry out NO repairs at all, either by their own
staff or by the use of contractors.
--
Cheers

Peter