Public services…

I was round at my mum’s this morning and had to wade towards her front door. The drain was blocked (again) – I’ve cleared it a few times but all the crap from her road seems to end up in her driveway.

I asked her if the drain was ever cleared by the council and she laughed – ‘I’ve been trying to get them to clean it for the last two years.’

Last week when she was poorly, we tried to get an ambulance to take her into hospital – it never turned up. The doctor eventually did a house call and was brilliant – but it was 12 hours or so after mum (92) was taken ill.

The street light outside her house doesn’t work and leans at a ridiculous angle – I’m sure it’s dangerous. Again, I asked whether mum had chased up getting this repaired – and again I got the same answer – ‘two years I’ve been asking for them to sort this out.’

I’m sure there’s as an obvious answer to this …and it will be along the lines of some monetary based factor that I haven’t considered.

But can someone explain why all the services that we used to take for granted are now disappearing.

I’m thinking;

Public toilets
Street lighting
Road sweeping
Litter picking
Police
Fire service
NHS
Drain clearance

Surely, if there’s more people in the country, then therefore there should be more money going into the public coffers. If there’s more money in the public coffers …. then where on earth is it going?

Surely ‘progress’ is about providing ‘more’ services not less?

I suppose it could be that we have an ageing population and they require additional care? But from what I read this isn’t happening either?

WHAT AM I MISSING…?

Mike C