Elat, the Council & the New Room
Phill Boas
It had not been one of Elat’s better weeks. Elat and his wife wanted to add a small room on to the back of their house so that Elat’s wife would have a room in which to sow. Elat had spoken to a local builder; they had put in their plans to the council and were awaiting their permit. Nothing happened for 5 weeks. Next thing all their neighbours got a letter asking what objections they had to the Council letting Elat build his new room. Elat was outraged. Elat only found this out because his neighbour on one side, the neighbour who had the big tree whose branches kept falling into Elat’s yard, and causing damage to his vegetable patch, came in waving the letter. He was asking whether the room would be close enough to his place to be struck by falling branches. If this was so, he would be objecting to Elat building it because he did not need any more harassment from Elat. When Elat phoned the council to point out that the room would be virtually invisible from anywhere outside his property he was told this was irrelevant to the procedure which needed to be followed. Elat wanted to know why the procedure should apply in this case and was told he simply did not understand local government.
That night Elat had a restless night, but got a huge shot of energy and found himself feeling very creative. When the council worker responsible for sending out neighbour letters typed the routine letter, she found herself typing a request for support for his project. Her letter included a briefer statement that they would be willing to hear from anyone who felt they should not grant the approval together with reasons. Elat received one of these letters also; with a hand note saying that the council hoped they would be able to expedite his application. Elat visited all his friends in the area who agreed to send letters of support, 120 did so, citing many instances where Elat had been helpful to themselves, the local community and the council. The next-door neighbour it turned out was hoping to build a gardening shed over the coming year. Immediately he received his letter he sought out Elat to reassure him he would not be making any objections. He assured Elat, if any pruning of his tree were needed he would be willing to do it. An officious busybody who lived behind Elat and filled his time with legal harassment at every opportunity, objected but forgot to mail his letter. Three weeks after Elat had sought the permit, his builder received permission to proceed. Elat was delighted. To show his willingness to be active in community affairs Elat agreed to stand for the local council. Elat was sponsored as a local counsellor and won on a landslide. Elat next won a hotly contested vote requiring all local council procedures to be reviewed in terms of their citizen-friendliness. Elat’s review panel supported a new CEO who guaranteed to get permit applications handled within a maximum of 14 days and to refocus all council procedures to be citizen-friendly, i.e. consumer-oriented. Elat arranged for the new CEO to have all staff receive some serious customer service delivery training. He also made certain that the new CEO knew all the 220 council staff by name and could tell him about them. When Elat woke up that morning he was feeling very satisfied and looking forward to his wife brewing his cup of tea.
End
602 words
Elat # 7
phillboas 