Plan B Forum

A housewife who asked her local council why her bin had not been collected was sent a questionnaire in response - which demanded to know her ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation.



Richenda Legge, a 56-year-old grandmother, had wanted to know why one plastic rubbish bag had not been lifted by bin men.

Instead of dealing with her complaint, Norfolk District Council sent her a customer survey with a series of highly personal questions.

Mrs Legge, from Beeston Regis, said: 'I though the survey was going to be about the bin service and might even explain why my rubbish was not collected when it should have been.

'Instead it asked me things like my employment status, disability and religious beliefs.

'But I really saw red when I read the question about my sexual orientation. There was a choice of heterosexual and straight, gay woman/lesbian, bi-sexual or ''other''.

'As it so happens I am happily married to Mr Legge so I can’t on earth see what any of that has to do with the fact that my rubbish wasn’t taken away when it should have been.

'I found the questions offensive and unnecessary - and so I shredded and recycled it.

'At a time when the council is making cutbacks it seems an absolute waste of money to send out things like this - there was even a reply-paid envelope.

Mrs Legge, who suffers from arthritis, added: 'The form I expected to be about my query over the bins was just a customer satisfaction survey asking questions about how the council had dealt with my query.

'The rest of the questions which were on a separate form were much more personal - I can’t believe they need to know all that about people who pay their rates and expect a decent rubbish collection service.'

Her husband Bill, a 75-year-old retired engineer, said: 'My wife only phoned the council to ask why an extra bag of rubbish hadn’t been collected on the same day as the black wheelie bin was emptied.

'When they asked her if she wanted to take part in a customer service survey she was very keen to air her views about rubbish collection.

'The last thing she expected was to be questioned about her religion or sexual orientation.'

Norfolk District Council has apologised and vowed to scrap the 'intrusive' form.

Council leader Helen Eales said: 'There is far too much red tape - even at well-woman clinics staff ask the same list of questions.

'The rules state we must demonstrate as a local authority that we are being fair to everyone - but I fail to see how knowing that a trans-sexual called us about their wheelie bin would help us in any way at all.

'At the moment it is still a legal requirement for us to carry out equality minority under rules brought in by the Labour government.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z1RvbWgcaT

loCAtek wrote:In the AM?

loCAtek wrote:Posted 2011-07-13 23:20

loCAtek wrote:In bed by ten usually.

..wow, I didn't even ask for that attention , thX!

Who needs to seek attention; it's being thrown at me now.