The Most Corrupt and Inept Council
The trouble is...where do you start?!
As the title suggests, this council has been voted the most corrupt in the country by several independent bodies.
I'm not allowed to include website links in this review, but if you type BCP corrupt council into Google, it will get you on the right path. The website West Country Voices also has a piece about an independent survey that results BCP as by far the worst council in the U.K. This is just one example of many.
Let's start with refuse. Like many on Google reviews, the refuse department comes to the forefront of many complaints, from the individual refuse workers, all the way up to the staff at the end of the phone, and obviously the regular missed collections. BCP have regularly breached their own terms by missing bin collections after promising
to pick up the missed bin, only for this to be missed too. This has happened on regular occasions. From the refuse workers who collect the bins - on many occasions I have personally witnessed the binmen leaving the emptied bins almost in the road and away from the actual address it belongs to. I have on one occasion been in my car ready to reverse out of my drive when they have emptied my bin, only to leave it directly behind my vehicle, so that I have to get out and move it a few feet away. When pointing this out (I remained calm and polite) all I received was attitude. When calling to complain, the BCP staff member was unhelpful, resulting in me saying words to the effect of "it doesn't that much intelligence to re-place a bin to the side of the drive" lead to the staff member accusing me of discrimination??!!! Again I remained calm and polite until this point where he pushed me to the point of telling him to 'grow up and do his job properly'. This example is just one of many. The refuse department miss on average of a bin collection every other week.
Away from my local area, Bournemouth has become a rubbish tip, especially on the beaches in the summer. I was a beach worker for several years between Bournemouth and Poole, and I have never seen it so untidy and litter strewn as what it is now.
The BCP website itself is archaic and is the polar opposite of user friendly - for example, when logging in to try to manage missed bin reports or managing council tax, BCP has many different logins requiring different passwords to enter pages that just are not helpful.
The roads are another prime example (although many other councils are guilty of this too). For example, the roundabout that joins Hoburne Lane with Highcliffe Rd on the border of Christchurch and Highcliffe. There is often a queue of traffic waiting to enter the roundabout from travelling south on Hoburne Lane. The roundabout from this entrance splits into 2 lanes. The left lane is for left only, to go towards Highcliffe, which rarely gets used as there is access to Highcliffe Rd from higher up on Hoburne Lane via Copse Way. As a result, the right lane is for all traffic turning right towards Christchurch and Somerford or straight on for Mudeford.
If the left lane were to be used for left and straight on, this would dramatically reduce the build up of traffic (I have written to BCP about this, only to be ignored - surprise surprise!).
This along with pedestrian traffic light crossings after roundabouts, along with bushes overgrown at junctions or roundabouts, so when entering a roundabout, as a driver or cyclist, you are unable to see if the road is clear to enter the roundabout, resulting in slowing or stopping when not required, instead of keeping the traffic flowing.
Is it any wonder that BCP area is the 4th worst place in the U.K. for traffic? You can also easily locate that statistic too!
In summary, BCP are a trainwreck of an organisation that I know has been one of the main reasons for a few people that myself and my partner know, to move out to other areas such as Wimborne and New Milton (Dorset County Council and New Forest District Council).
Although I know it's not going to happen soon, but the sooner this council disbands (and goes back to the individual councils for each area) the better it will be for every resident.
7 marzo 2025
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