The grumpy thread

[loserone]

5 minutes ago, clayts450 said:

I'm on a water meter - mine bizarrely went down from £17 to £15 per month from April. Get yerself on a meter, lad

We've just ordered a meter as our rates have gone up about 25%.

[barefoot]

1 hour ago, loserone said:

We've just ordered a meter as our rates have gone up about 25%.

Have other folk experienced the same? Am I being priced into having a metered account?

[loserone]

7 minutes ago, barefoot said:

Have other folk experienced the same? Am I being priced into having a metered account?

I'm not yet convinced that the meter will be cheaper but apparently if it's not cheaper we can go back to unmetered within the first two years.

[High Jetter]

2 hours ago, loserone said:

I'm not yet convinced that the meter will be cheaper but apparently if it's not cheaper we can go back to unmetered within the first two years.

You sure? I thought it was a one-way street.

[sheffcortinacentre]

I'm single so meter is ideal been on one for ages, bill is a third what I was paying.

[New POD]

3 hours ago, sheffcortinacentre said:

I'm single so meter is ideal been on one for ages, bill is a third what I was paying.

My wife has a deep bath every day. I'm convinced a meter will be more expensive. 

[paulplom]

11 hours ago, barefoot said:

Whatever. By means of protest I'm going to start wandering the streets after dark and shitting directly into the kerbside drains.

 

Just leave your taps running all day and get your moneys worth.

[comfortablynumb]

12 hours ago, clayts450 said:

I'm on a water meter - mine bizarrely went down from £17 to £15 per month from April. Get yerself on a meter, lad

I'm on a water meter, since about mid last year.

I'm also on a special rate for disability needs.

I've had CONSTANT letters from Anglian water telling me I've got a leak ( I haven't) and the bill has increased despite the rate.

I'm not alone either, I've heard of dozens of people online with the same 'fault'

Couldn't be Anglian water trying to get work to get them.out of the massive financial hole they're in could it? No, can't possibly be that..🤔

[EyesWeldedShut]

23 hours ago, Supernaut said:

On the one hand we can try to be pragmatic about this. Council tax has been frozen in Scotland for a while. Now that it's been un-frozen, councils are trying to play catch up. Who had one of the lowest rates when it was frozen? Falkirk.

I guess they're just playing catchup with us over here in Wales?

10% last year here, 9.8% this year (more or less £25 on each monthly payment for band D).
Moved here in 2011 and the monthly has gone from £110 to £275 - I guess less coming in from Central Gov accounts for some of it.

https://statswales.gov.wales/Catalogue/Local-Government/Finance/Council-Tax/Levels/annualpercentageincreaseinaveragebanddcounciltax-by-billingauthority

[loserone]

9 hours ago, High Jetter said:

You sure? I thought it was a one-way street.

After two years it is

[Metal Guru]

34 minutes ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

I guess they're just playing catchup with us over here in Wales?

10% last year here, 9.8% this year (more or less £25 on each monthly payment for band D).
Moved here in 2011 and the monthly has gone from £110 to £275 - I guess less coming in from Central Gov accounts for some of it.

https://statswales.gov.wales/Catalogue/Local-Government/Finance/Council-Tax/Levels/annualpercentageincreaseinaveragebanddcounciltax-by-billingauthority

The SNP freeze on council tax was a stunt to make them look good to the voters while passing on the problem of providing services without enough money to the councils. I’m no fan councils , they love spending other people’s money on vanity and other unnecessary projects, but they have been shat on by the Scottish government. 

[EyesWeldedShut]

1 minute ago, Metal Guru said:

The SNP freeze on council tax was a stunt to make them look good to the voters while passing on the problem of providing services without enough money to the councils. I’m no fan councils , they love spending other people’s money on vanity and other unnecessary projects, but they have been shat on by the Scottish government. 

Wasn't there a big ruck last year over the whole Council Tax freeze up there? It kind of rings a bell.

Our lot had some changes post COVID that either allowed or forced them to make large rises. Average on a Band D in Wales  2024-25 was £2024, we're on £2103 and the lowest is £1813. The rural areas seem to feature towards the higher end of the scale - I guess less population density?
(not sure if Scotland still includes the water rates with the Local Authority taxes - ours are over and above council tax)

[High Jetter]

2 hours ago, loserone said:

After two years it is

Thanks, didn't know that. Bet they don't bother to remove the meter though, just change the billing method so a free way of gaining a meter if it doesn't proove cheaper?

[loserone]

Correct 

[Fumbler]

Bad words.

[sheffcortinacentre]

10 hours ago, Metal Guru said:

The SNP freeze on council tax was a stunt to make them look good to the voters while passing on the problem of providing services without enough money to the councils. I’m no fan councils , they love spending other people’s money on vanity and other unnecessary projects, but they have been shat on by the Scottish government. 

Sheffield council have been experts at vanity projects for years.

[robt100]

On 07/03/2025 at 21:36, barefoot said:

Have other folk experienced the same? Am I being priced into having a metered account?

AS far as I can work out, even on the highest rateable charge it shouldn't be that much, maybe £40 a mont max? Mine was £25 a month on the same supplier at my old property. highest pence per £rateable value is 209p.

Think a water meter is roughly £4 per m3, so thats 1000 litres/219 gallons. So according to your current charges, they reckon you are using around 5700L per week, unless you're running a full time window cleaning/car valeting business and purifying water at home you shouldn't be using anywhere near that much. That would be the equivalent of filling a 4m x 3m pond half a meter deep every week.

[Metal Guru]

2 hours ago, robt100 said:

AS far as I can work out, even on the highest rateable charge it shouldn't be that much, maybe £40 a mont max? Mine was £25 a month on the same supplier at my old property. highest pence per £rateable value is 209p.

Think a water meter is roughly £4 per m3, so thats 1000 litres/219 gallons. So according to your current charges, they reckon you are using around 5700L per week, unless you're running a full time window cleaning/car valeting business and purifying water at home you shouldn't be using anywhere near that much. That would be the equivalent of filling a 4m x 3m pond half a meter deep every week.

We need to know how much that is in “Olympic swimming pools.” Media SI unit for large volumes of water.

[myglaren]

I've held off a water meter.  I live alone but use a fair bit of water in the summer, on the garden.

I'm paying £46 a month so a meter may be advisable.

[Mally]

15 hours ago, Fumbler said:

Bad words.

I've had similar with a zetec.

I ground the square end of a 3/8" extension to a taper with corners angled so they dug in on unscrewing. May need 1/2" on yours.

Piston on that cylinder at the bottom, Carefully hammered the extension into the threaded remains.

Fit power bar to extension. Long length of 2x2"RHS across the top of power bar, chain round on end of bar and looped under engine mount.

2 blokes weighing down on long end of RHS.

Undo with power bar.

Sounds complicated but worked on a Stock car.

You may want to examine if any bits fall on the piston, but we just span it over and put a new plug in.

Also wing damage could happen on a saloon. if anything slips.

Best take the head off if its a decent car, we just wanted to race in 5 minutes.

[robt100]

9 hours ago, Metal Guru said:

We need to know how much that is in “Olympic swimming pools.” Media SI unit for large volumes of water.

1 olympic swimming pool every 8 years I think 🤣 (Pool is 2,500 m3, and£99p/m would give a rate of 24m3 a month)

[Mally]

4 hours ago, myglaren said:

I've held off a water meter.  I live alone but use a fair bit of water in the summer, on the garden.

I'm paying £46 a month so a meter may be advisable.

My neighbour got a water meter because she lived alone.

Then remembered she had 4 areas of gardens and many plants.

So she used my tap.

[barefoot]

Here's the first of many grumbles about my part time fill in job that I'm doing. Essentially I ensure that a fleet of minibuses are fit to be used. One of the drivers consistently leaves the windows open, so I wrote all over the sheets he has to complete...

He still left the fuckers down.

[vulgalour]

Time for some passive aggressive labels in every part of the workplace he goes, and inside every minibus he drives and maybe on whatever vehicle he turns up to work in.

[Burnside]

My sister said her Panda 4x4 was making a horrible noise. Yep, that's fucked.

Anti roll bar is ripped out from one it's mountings. Feeling pretty gutted right now!

So if anyone knows of a decent rear subframe for a 2006 Panda (169) 4x4. Unlikely as that is, let me know. Otherwise it's game over. 

[goosey]

Tyre fitter thought I was out of earshot-

fitter 1

them tyres look brand new what did the dozy cunt do ? 

fitter 2 

ask the gentleman yourself he’s standing over there 

Fitter 1 just literally runs away staring at the ground while fitter 2 apologised politely 

 

 

[barefoot]

18 hours ago, vulgalour said:

Time for some passive aggressive labels in every part of the workplace he goes, and inside every minibus he drives and maybe on whatever vehicle he turns up to work in.

Sadly I can't. I work for a charity and all of our drivers are volunteers. If a chap were to grumble at them, they just stop turning up. This bloke though, he's ex-military, you'd have thought he could follow a simple instruction. Although having said that, he used to drive tanks, and parks the minibuses as though he can rotate them about fifteen degrees around their centre point before leaping out through the sunroof.

[Agila]

10 minutes ago, barefoot said:

they just stop turning up.

Oh. Looks like the windows will be staying open then.

Zero fucks given, there will be literally nothing you can do about it. Personally if that's the case I'd learn to ignore it as it will only wind you up.

Hopefully one day it rains and he'll have a wet arse the next shift and might learn from it.

[UltraWomble]

I'm very definitely getting grumpier in my old age. 

Spent the last 24 hours arguing with some young woman on a local Facebook group about why her very long winded Facebook post about some below minimum wage Asian blokes failed uber eats selivery from McDonald's was utterly pointless. 

I've very patiently explained to her how she can complain, how she can speak to her bank or use the app to set up a charge back for her non arrival of a big mac, how naming and shaming the delivery guy is a waste of time because uber eats doesn't allow you to pick a specific delivery rider, how to complain to uber eats and how to write a review on trust pilot that will have more impact than the Wrea Green Facebook page on uber eats  business model and customer care delivery

Apparently  I'm stupid because I haven't sent her hugs. 

She's got CCTV footage you know of no delivery bloke even coming down her road. 

[Supernaut]

2 minutes ago, UltraWomble said:

arguing on a local Facebook group

There's your mistake.

Like trying to shovel fog with a colander.