Dumb Bureaucracy!

We've been having an ongoing battle with Bass Coast Shire Council about our postal address for the last 18 months or so. Over the 30 years we have been here, our address has been Stanley Road, Grantville. But a couple of years ago the Shire decided to do some township boundry realignments and, in their wisdom, we suddenly became part of Glen Forbes.

No problems - we don't care where the Shire says we are physically located. But the mailing address is a different thing. The Shire started sending things like Rates Notices to us at Glen Forbes. The problem with that is that access to Stanley Road is from Grantville, not from Glen Forbes - so the mail was seldom (if ever) delivered if it was addressed to us at Glen Forbes. Our Bank also sent statements etc to us at Glen Forbes - none of them reached us - until we convinced the bank to change our postal address back to Grantville.

We have no idea how much mail has gone astray in the past couple of years thanks to the combined bungling of Bass Coast Shire and Australia Post !

We suggested the solution to Bass Coast Shire when this issue first arose because of their incompetence – leave our location address as Glen Forbes if that's how they get their jollies, but change our postal address back to Grantville - as that's the only way we get mail delivered.

They couldn't have cared less, even when I advised that if we didn't receive rates notices we obviously couldn't pay them. Staff weren't interested and the Shire Mayor (who happens to be our local councillor) was less than helpful.

Bureaucracy sucks.

Here's an email received today from Australia Post:

I am contacting you as a result of difficulties you have experienced lately in having your mail delivered in a timely manner to your property. I have visited the local area in an effort to establish a resolution to this issue. As you are aware, Rural Road Numbering was implemented in your area some time ago in accordance with the state-wide Rural Addressing System. Using your address greatly assists emergency services and other utilities to find your property efficiently, including Australia Post. Although your property is within the Glen Forbes Locality it cannot be accessed by the contractor who services the Glen Forbes area. For this reason and to help us deliver your mail on time to the correct destination, it is necessary to change your postal address to a Private Bag address. This will enable our operations to be more efficient and prevent your mail being delayed.

This is the solution we suggested to Shire ages ago. Leave our residential address as Glen Forbes but continue sending our mail to us at Grantville, as that is the only way it gets delivered.

It's nice to have a win now and then – but lets hope this works!!!

As for the comments about the Rural Addressing System making it easier for emergency services to find our property – how can it be more efficient to tell them that our address is Glen Forbes when the only access to the property is from Grantville?  Our local CFA guys know that Stanley Road is in Grantville, not Glen Forbes, but brigades from further away wouldn't have a clue neither would the State Emergency Service, Police or Ambulance crews. So presumably they would head to Glen Forbes and then ask for directions from locals ..... so much for efficiency.

Thank you Bass Coast Shire.