Southend-on-Sea City Council — Local services in Great Britain

DO NOT MOVE YOUR BUSINESS TO SOUTHEND! Shockingly poor service from this council. This council is extremely hostile to the small business community. We made the grave mistake of moving our business here in February 2020, only to be faced with immediate hostility and adversarial posture of the council seeking to withhold our governemnt COVID-19 grant entitlement due to their poor record keeping and not having us "in the system" at the March 11th date of eligibility. Our landlord supplied a signed lease prior to this date, and we supplied video of us occupying the premises more than a month prior to this date along with evidence that we registered at the premises with Companies House more than two months prior to the date of eligibility. They have made countless excuses of "we are looking into it" and "it's discretionary, so we don't have to give you the grant" etc. It is at the point now where we are actually going to have to sue our own council to pay us the money the national government has guaranteed our business. It is the most unethical, dishonest and lazy group of public servants I have ever had the great displeasure of having to deal with. The high-street is plagued with drug addicts, the Queen Victoria monument here has had its arm missing for over a year....it is absolute amateur hour at Southend Council. If you enjoy the circus, you will feel...

Annoyed to say the least. I’ve just given birth and booked to register the birth of my newborn. Using the Borough Council website as instructed (because they don’t book appointments over the phone), I selected a Saturday afternoon appointment. A council worker phoned me ahead of my appointment to confirm the day, date and time, as the website was having some technical difficulties. Come to day of the appointment, I arrive at the centre - just for it to be closed. With my newborn and toddler (after recently having surgery) this was not easy. I phone the out of hours helpline who advise they are confused, as they aren’t open past 12pm on Saturdays… I now have to find another time to make the same trip, which physically is really difficult at this time - otherwise I’ll be fined.

Can you please fix your website or advise your employees of your own opening times to avoid confusion and...

Absolutely awful service, attempting to contact the environmental health and safety department was virtually impossible. When calling the Southend Borough Council, you are made to wait in at least 45 minutes of being left on hold. Once you reach an actual person they then tell you how awful your situation is but there is nothing that can be done about it. After being told about a pneumatic drill that was creating 90 decibels within my flat as well as making the whole floor shake, they proceeded to do nothing and tell us to fill out some online form that would take at least 2 weeks to read by the council. Surely such issues when raised warrant a more serious response as the potential safety of an entire block of flats is at risk. On top of this, only 10% of the employees were in the offices as the other 90% are working from home, making it impossible to speak to a...