One year on, the streets are still shameful (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)

One year on, the streets are still shameful

5:14pm Wednesday 3rd June 2009

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One year on, and the row over Kier Street Services has reared its ugly head again.

The company took over the contract from the council's in-house service on June 2 last year and was beset almost immediately with "teething problems" - also variously referred to as "bedding down" and "settling in" problems - which were to dog it for months afterwards.

Streets went unswept. Litter and fly-tipping seemed to be building up at an alarming rate. Residents complained in their hundreds or even thousands about the sub-par service they were being made to put up with and, as readers will probably remember, the Guardian launched a campaign to try to fix the problem.

And for a period of perhaps four or five months, there was indeed a lull in the number of complaints we received. Things were looking up, at least on the surface of it. But it seems the problem is not gone - despite improvements in "hotspots" for fly-tipping and litter - and now there are all sorts of contractual wrangles going on between Kier and its staff. Our friendly neighbourhood union mole has made a number of claims against Kier, ranging from laying off all its agency staff to failing to pay staff on time or in full.

Kier has, of course, staunchly denied these claims or at least refused to confirm their veracity. Not that this has stopped staff from threatening strike action, but the general line from the company seems to be that everything's A-ok. And the council has added that things are more or less peachy now, at least judging by the number of complaints they've received (fewer, so it says). Apparently, some operational changes were made and now it's all dandy.

Call me cynical, but I can't help wondering if people have just stopped trying. If you phone up and phone and phone up and email and email and email and get nowhere, there must be a cut-off point at which you decide it's just not worth it anymore.

In one case, a persistent phoner-upper and emailer did tell me he'd made some progress, which was heartening. But it doesn't necessarily seem to be the case that if you shout long enough and loud enough, someone will eventually pay attention, as there are plenty of other people who have probably been just as persistent, but who say their streets are just as bad as they ever were.

When, and if, this saga will ever end, is therefore anyone's guess...