From Paul Lee:
'... I just wanted to tell you about a recent little victory against the forces of indifference.. About two months ago I found myself a little bit annoyed by the fact that I had twice pressed the button on Cork County Council's website that says: (and I quote) "Help us to help you.... Comments, complaints, compliments" written on the bottom left of the Home Page. Having pressed this button (the first time) which opens up the feedback dialogue box, I wrote down some points about improving the planning process in Cork County. The result of doing this?: Nothing. Also- no record of the email because its a dialogue box! I tried again about two months later, this time thinking: I better keep a copy of my email this time. This I did. Response? Same as last time. About 6 months later, I decided to get in touch with the Ombudsman to complain. The Ombudsman was very helpful and forced the County Council to reply to my comments. When I was in touch with the CoCo about the matter on foot of the reply I had received, they still didn't know which link on their website wasn't working!.. So I told them. Poor old Cork County Council don't have the resources to check their own website. Anyhow, I received a communication from the Ombudsman recently to say that Cork County Council have put a system in place to ensure that all emails to them are tracked.... Well done to Cork Co. Co. for such ingenuity! So.. lets see if their email system is working by clicking here and give the poor old Cork Co. Co. a few bits of advice or a little word of encouragement... '
'... I just wanted to tell you about a recent little victory against the forces of indifference.. About two months ago I found myself a little bit annoyed by the fact that I had twice pressed the button on Cork County Council's website that says: (and I quote) "Help us to help you.... Comments, complaints, compliments" written on the bottom left of the Home Page. Having pressed this button (the first time) which opens up the feedback dialogue box, I wrote down some points about improving the planning process in Cork County. The result of doing this?: Nothing. Also- no record of the email because its a dialogue box!
I tried again about two months later, this time thinking: I better keep a copy of my email this time. This I did. Response? Same as last time. About 6 months later, I decided to get in touch with the Ombudsman to complain. The Ombudsman was very helpful and forced the County Council to reply to my comments. When I was in touch with the CoCo about the matter on foot of the reply I had received, they still didn't know which link on their website wasn't working!.. So I told them. Poor old Cork County Council don't have the resources to check their own website.
Anyhow, I received a communication from the Ombudsman recently to say that Cork County Council have put a system in place to ensure that all emails to them are tracked.... Well done to Cork Co. Co. for such ingenuity!
So.. lets see if their email system is working by clicking here and give the poor old Cork Co. Co. a few bits of advice or a little word of encouragement... '
Its so funny you should mention it, Paul - I myself had reason to discover that (at least a couple of months ago) the same little positive-feedback malfunction was going on in either Kilkenny or Dublin (can't remember which).
Here's an idea: everyone reading this, please try to leave some positive feedback on the planning section of their local authority's website and get back to me on how you fared!