MEDWAY COUNCIL - THE SEQUEL

I bet you thought it was just pure fluke didn’t you?

That it was a once in a lifetime moment and couldn’t be repeated or sustained to that high level of service in a million years without some slip up being made or someone thinking “ alright ,she’s had her allotted amount of our time let’s forget about her and sweep that problem back under the carpet where it belongs now ” .

I refer of course to the subject of my column a fortnight ago and how Medway council had exceeded my expectations in getting a repair job completed within 24 hours of me reporting it to them.

 Not only that but they had kept me posted all along the way with what actions had been taken and if you remember I ended that particular piece by writing jokingly the threat “don’t think this is the last you’ve heard from me yet” after noticing that unfortunately all their hard work had already started to be undone by those who care not a jot for things looking nice and tidy.

However, come the start of the week the paper containing that particular column went on sale and preoccupied by a son whose new school shoes were according to him akin to slipping his foot inside a bacon slicer, I have to admit that broken bits of fencing and being an eco warrior were the last things on my mind.

So when a call from an unknown number flashed up on my mobile the following day I chose to ignore it assuming that if it was important they would leave a message and if not it could intercept yet another annoying PPI compensation cold call.

“Oh, here we go “I thought as the answer phone icon pinged up on the corner of my phone screen “press 9 to find out about how I am supposedly due compensation for PPI I was miss-sold despite the fact I’ve never taken a loan or owned a credit card “but as I listened to the message I was pleasantly surprised.

For instead of a minutes worth of silence or an automated voice telling me to press a certain number to find out how to stake my claim, what I actually heard was Medway council calling to say that after reading Monday’s column they had sent someone out to have a look at the fence again, that it had been repaired once more and they would keep a close eye on it to make sure that it was being maintained.

Now the cynical among you and I can’t say I blame you, would probably argue that maybe if I wasn’t a columnist for the local newspaper they might not have been quite so keen to get the job done so quickly and efficiently.

However as they didn’t know that was who I was the first time round it just goes to show sometimes  a lot can be achieved if you swap the ranting and raving for a little politeness , patience and praise.