Westmorlandandfurness Reviews 

Having lived in various places under various councils, Westmorland and Furness take the prize for being the worst we've experienced. Virtually every service we've come across has failed to work effectively, whether it be waste removal, highways, council tax and of course the wonderful website. Having paid for green waste removal the council failed to empty our green bins. Having moved house, they took a £800 overpayment from us without our authority and refused to refund it (it's in their bank, not ours, they'll gradually repay by removing our final payment of the year in the new propery). Having received a bona fide claim for severe pothole (8 inch deep) damage which destroyed a car wheel, they employed a loss adjuster to repel the claim using every trick in the book, ranging from 'the road doesn't exist' to the 'when all said and done you can't prove the accident happened so sue us if you can afford it'. Having reported that their hedge was damaging our property and preventing repair, they closed down case within 24 hours without any explanation whatsoever. And how do they justify these failures etc? Quite simply, they ignore you. Whether it's their Head of Highways, their loss adjuster, their council tax clerk, they're website bot - the ultimate response is ignorance (well, to be fair the loss adjuster was prepared to exchange numerous emails over 8 months before clamming up, but presumably was being paid for each reply.. doubtless more than the claim). I have to admit it's an effective yet infuriating tactic, and I very much doubt that any of those in charge chose to be councillors in order to rudely ignore their constituents. But it seems it's the tactic they've chosen and for the time being they're being richly rewarded. Trustpilot suggests constructive advice helps improve feedback, which is sensible. So my constructive advice to WAFC is please listen, please respond, please remember how you yourself feel about being ignored, and if the answer is, look we can't afford to provide you with the service you deserve, than be honest and say so. I'd understand honesty. But ignorance, no.

Drove into Ambleside this morning and into the Miller Street car park as all other car parks, as usual, were full. All 3 machines at this site were playing up with many people not able to get a ticket at all. After waiting in the queues of the 3 machines I tried several times with both contactless and pin type cards with no success. Other people were having the same issues and like us, left out of frustration and anger at this waste of time. Others, after several attempts, managed to get tickets. Another issue is trying to read the screens on these machines as they're useless in sunlight. Ambleside is not the only place with these parking issues. Who ever designs these machines needs to quit and go stack shelves in a shop because they're useless chunks of metal.

Couldn't get a parking space anywhere and after spending hours driving around looking for a place, ended up going home. The lake district has acre upon acre of land and the country is full of people who can create car parks and build machines that actually work. Obviously, the powers that be in the lake district either can't sort out their parking problems because they're not smart enough or are purposely making things difficult in order to make money from fines. Which one is it?