Episode 3 Call the Council

From waste and recycling to pest control and trading standards,

the taxes that we pay to our local councils

are used to provide many of our most essential services.

I like people who are keen to recycle.

In this series we follow the frontline staff

working behind the walls of Tameside Town Hall in Greater Manchester.

Like council officers across the country,

these local heroes are waging war on those blighting our communities.

Oi, oi, oi! Excuse me, love. You can't do that!

They're protecting us from hidden dangers...

There's rodents under your kitchen, you won't be opening tonight. It's simple.

..making sure our cash is spent on those who need it most...

I'm at a loose end. I do not know where to turn.

..and responding to their residents when they Call The Council.

Coming up:

Council officers intervene when tensions run high

between neighbours at war over a water supply.

There's no water coming to the taps in the utility,

there's no water in the cistern downstairs.

We've got bottled water to flush the toilets.

The allegations are that that is being turned on and off

to stop supply.

It's not in my interest to cut my own business off with the water supply.

A whole street full of residents call the council

when their houses are overrun by mice.

I'll start with you and I'll come and see you

and then I'll knock on...

And an officer responds to another resident desperate for help

to solve a serious damp issue.

I have no idea what's the matter with it

but I just want it sorted out.

The UK's 63 million residents depend on each and every one

of their 433 local authorities to keep their communities clean,

safe and to provide many essential services.

Good afternoon. Environmental services.

And whether it's road maintenance, waste management or pest control,

as taxpayers, we expect value for money.

In Tameside, a borough of Greater Manchester,

there are over 2,000 council employees waiting to respond

whenever a resident calls the council.

The fact that you can keep people safe

and that you make a difference to people

who ask for help from the local authority

is a great thing to be able to achieve

and it does give you job satisfaction.

Be it noise nuisance, nasty smells,

high hedges or antisocial behaviour, complaints about our neighbours

rank highly amongst the 50 million calls

made to our councils in one year alone.

Official government advice is that neighbours should try

to resolve any arguments by talking to each other

or using a mediation service

but communication at Thorncliffe Hall Farm has broken down.

Resident Gill Cooper believes her water supply is being

restricted by a neighbour and has called the council.

We have no water coming into the house through

what would be our mains supply.

The cold water, as you can see, is dry, completely dry.

We have got some hot water that comes from the tanks.

In terms of cooking, I have to use bottled water.

Gill and the four other properties in this hamlet aren't connected

to the mains water supply that 99% of us draw our water from.

Instead they share a private supply from a nearby spring.

The pipes from the spring are designed to channel water

to all four properties but Gill's supply is intermittent

and she believes her neighbour, who runs a livery business,

is controlling the water via a stop tap in her garden.

An allegation the neighbour, Gaynor McCormack, strenuously denies.

It is not a fair allegation

because the pressure problem is somewhere back across the meadows.

Strictly speaking, the council has no legal obligation to get involved

if a water supply is insufficient

but because Gill has made some serious allegations

about her supply being interrupted

and in an effort to resolve their resident's distress,

environmental services officer Kevin Greenwood is stepping in.

In the first instance we, as an authority,

always try to get the people who are responsible themselves

to carry out the work and take ownership of the problem.

That would always be our first stance.

In this particular case, because of communication difficulties

between the residents, that has not been possible.

It's not just Gill who is claiming to have a restricted water supply.

Mike Savage, who owns the end property,

is also making allegations against Gaynor McCormack.

We can't even spend or pass the time of day with each other any more.

Because it's got to that point where we know what's been going on.

Things are blatantly rubbed in your face,

like the waste of water or the butts that's evident

outside the property now, that she can fill up five big containers

of water constantly, all day long

yet nobody else has got even a dribble coming through the tap.

That water supply supplies my own business

where I have to water 23 horses twice a day.

Why on earth would I put myself through that kind of manual labour,

having to pail water through my property?

Hi. Good evening.

Sorry we're a little bit late. The traffic was horrendous.

Kevin needs to investigate the claims

with Gill and her partner Dave.

There's no water coming to the taps in the utility,

there's no water in the cistern downstairs.

We've got bottled water to flush the toilets.

-That has been like that for the last eight or nine weeks.

-At that.

-Like that.

-So does it stop at all, or is it slow like that?

-It stops.

-It stops.

-The majority of the time we don't have a supply.

Gill and Dave believe the problem lies with a valve

situated in Gaynor's back yard.

They say it's being turned off, restricting their supply

while Gaynor's water runs freely.

-That is under the manhole cover next door.

-In the garden.

-And the allegation is that this...

-That's right.

..fitting there is turned with a screwdriver to stop flow.

-Have you ever seen anybody turning that?

-We haven't.

'I think dealing with these awkward situations'

where there are arguments and potential problems like this,

a great deal of experience over the years has helped to remain calm

and although sympathetic, dealing with it in a professional manner.

We may feel inside a little bit more than we are allowed to show

but we've got to deal with it professionally.

Once it's like that, that's it.

It's time to get in the car, take the washing to Gill's mum's,

get a shower at Gill's mum's and that's how we've got to live.

The only other thing I can do tonight is to knock on the door

next door and ask them if they've got water at the taps.

Kevin decides to visit Mrs McCormick

and have a look at her water supply but unfortunately, she isn't in.

-That's really as much as we can do this evening.

-Thank you.

-OK.

-Yeah.

-Good night, now.

-For now, the dispute's unresolved.

It's down to the council to investigate the claims further

and find out what's causing the problems with the water.

There's a light at the end of the tunnel now, hopefully.

For me, I would say I'm optimistic but I'm not going to hold my breath.

Still to come, council officer Khush makes a breakthrough.

Would you replace that? Would you have that taken out?

I don't mind whether that's there or not.

But will it mean a steady stream of water returns

to Gill and Dave's homes?

I can't tell yet how good it will feel to just get water upstairs.

Britain's council officers are dedicated to helping us

fight all manner of problems, whatever their shape or size.

Today residents of five adjoining houses have called the council

to ask for pest control officer Brian Whelan's help.

They're all at the mercy of mice who've infested their homes.

I'm just filling my bag up with some poisons,

get my torch and then I'm going to go over and knock on this door

of the lady who's got a mouse problem so we'll see what she has to say.

The interlinking walls and shared roof spaces

of these terrace houses offer mice easy access to rich food supplies

and a perfect habitat to breed in.

They've obviously got their run of the place

cos it's all five houses that have got the problem.

Hopefully one of these will be the hot spot where it mainly is

and they're just travelling through for a food source

but we'll just wait and see and see how we go on the houses.

Mice can produce litters of six to eight young

and with a gestation period of just three weeks,

in ideal conditions, females can give birth every 25 days.

As well as spreading disease,

mice can also chew through electrical cables and cause fires.

Their presence can also induce phobias and stress-related illness.

So Brian's job is to eradicate the rodents and educate the residents

on how to pest proof their homes.

I'll start with you and then I'll come and see you

-and I'll knock on... Who's been organising this?

-Lorraine.

-Next door.

-Right.

-The instigator, yeah.

-The instigator! Not a problem.

Where have you seen them or where is the activity?

-The main part was loads of droppings and the mice was in here.

-Right.

So we put some traps in, caught three,

put them on the back of the fields and I pull that back in,

-screwed it down and sealed that, yeah.

-Yeah.

But we have seen them scurrying about the floor.

Following the pipework out of here again.

It doesn't take long for Brian to find evidence

-of recent rodent activity.

-See that coming over the top there?

That's what you call smear marks and that's what mice do

if they are constantly using the hole and going through it.

So that's what you see. Not a problem. I'll put some bait down.

-Obviously it's poison.

-Yeah.

-They'll eat it and they'll die.

Sometimes, obviously, you look for the markings, the smear markings.

The smear markings are what's...

If you remember years ago your mum and dad used to have

the old Dralon suites and the arms used to be black.

That's off the oil off the skin where they were jumping up and everything

so it's similar with mice and rats.

They have, like, an oily skin so when they're going through a hole,

they leave markings on the side.

Not a lot of droppings under here, is there?

Brian has to act fast and lay poison at every access hole.

-Hiya.

-Hiya.

-Pest control.

-Come to check for your mice problem.

-Yeah.

-Brilliant.

In the next house his hunt for evidence continues.

-The only place I found droppings was behind the washing machine.

-Behind there.

And the droppings you found were like little hundreds and thousands?

-Little pencil leads.

-Like little hundreds and thousands. That's fine.

-But not the same colours as hundreds and thousands.

-No. Not as tasty.

I had a fellow once, I said to him, he goes, he says, "It's mice."

I said, "Why? Have you seen any droppings, mate? He goes, "No."

You won't see droppings if it's a rat

because a rat tends to have an area where it does its business in.

A mouse will have droppings all over the place

as they are running and they're small.

And I said to this guy, I says,

"So you've not seen any hundreds and thousands? Little droppings?"

And he turned around and went,

"No. I've not seen any coloured droppings."

I went, "You what?"

And he thought that the mouse poo was going to be the same colour

as hundreds and thousands cos I was trying to describe

the size of the droppings and he said,

"No, I've not seen any multicoloured poo."

And I'm like...what am I dealing with? You know what I mean?

But as it happens, on that day he had rats so I got my own back, didn't I?

After almost two decades in the business,

Brian has learned what rodents love and how to keep them at bay.

What have you put on the traps?

Just left the bait on that they came with.

Put peanut butter on them, a bit of peanut butter or a bit of chocolate.

That will be a lot better.

Watch your magazine in here and books because obviously,

if they're in they'll use all this for nesting material.

What I suggest is if you get some plastic containers with lids on

and stack them in there and then stack it in that.

I know they can chew through the plastic

but at least you'll know by then cos you'll see the bits.

I always say, me, personally, I'd say putting bait down and stuff like that

is probably 10% of the job, if you have to.

If you don't have to there's a lot of proofing you can do,

sealing up holes and things like that. You've won the exercise there.

'Plus you've made a customer happy.' Thanks very much.

Brian lays poison in two more houses in the block

before moving on to the last home.

I've killed four up to now.

Two big ones and two small ones. How did I kill them? Mousetraps.

-Snap traps.

-Snap traps, yeah.

I won't touch them. I scream, as everybody else does.

It just ran across the room and, oh, I jumped out my skin.

Cos, you know, we couldn't move the Hoover out of the cupboard.

You got my number. Give me a bell back. Take care. Thanks very much.

To stop the mice breeding and spreading harmful diseases,

the residents will have to pest proof their homes

by sealing up holes and hiding potential nest making material.

Brian will be back in a few weeks to inspect their handiwork

and see if his bait has been taken.

Across the country local council officers like Brian are bravely

battling pest problems on behalf of the residents they serve.

But despite their hard work,

people who fail to pest proof or are careless with their waste disposal

and hygiene regimes encourage the rodent population to grow.

This means sightings of mice and rats are more common

than most of us would like.

For the last six months, we seem to have had the odd rat.

It doesn't bother me.

I mean, you woke up in the Army and they're as big as cats

and sleeping at the side of you so it doesn't really worry me

but it worries a lot of people.

Yesterday morning I found a rat on my patio.

And when I let the cat out, it went straight to where I'd

picked it up from so I think the cat had something to do with it.

Round about 40 years ago,

that's when I saw a rat over the road and funnily enough,

it was the bloody dog that caught it.

I haven't come across anything of that nature and if I do,

I will just run!

But it's not just rats and mice living too close for comfort

that upsets us Brits.

Estate agent estimates suggest that just under 50 householders

a day are selling up to get away from their neighbours.

Mediating neighbourhood disputes is far from easy,

but without the work of local council officers like Syed Huda,

these figures would be a lot higher.

I love properties,

I love structures and how the properties are built

and I also like to help people

so combine the two, I find it quite interesting for me and, you know,

otherwise I wouldn't be doing it for that many years, to be honest.

Syed's been tackling issues with landlords,

tenants and their neighbours for 18 years.

Today he is helping resident Fay Parker.

Fay's tried and failed to get the owner of her next door

neighbour's house to replace his rotten gutters.

She believes the damage is causing damp in her bedroom

and wants it fixed. So she's called the council.

I have no idea what's the matter with it

but I just want it sorted out.

Council officer Syed arrives to inspect the damp

and see if he can help Fay.

-Hi.

-Hi, Mrs Parker. Syed Huda from Tameside Council.

It's Fay's front bedroom that seems to be suffering most.

So, we've just decorated this room.

The ceiling, I've painted it and painted it and painted it

-and it still shows through.

-Right.

-You can see the mark, can't you?

-Yeah.

-You can see the mark.

Right. I need to solve the issue with the gutter. That's why...

-Yeah.

-..if that's the main problem for you.

To measure the moisture Syed uses a damp meter.

A red light indicates an issue.

That's very damp, isn't it?

MACHINE BEEPS

I've got a house like a leaky colander.

Untreated damp can cause rot in your home and encourage dust mites.

And, if the mould it produces is left untreated,

it can increase the risk of respiratory illnesses like mycosis.

With damp detected, Syed must now find the source.

Look up there.

-You can see the join between our gutter and his gutter.

-Yes.

So if his gutter gets full and blocked up with leaves and rubbish

and things, which it does, then the water backs up and it also...

..blocks us off as well and we are getting absolutely fed up with it.

-He just doesn't take care of the outside of the house.

-I understand.

I have to be absolutely 100% certain

-that you've got damp in your property because of the faulty gutter.

-Right.

Can you see the way it's dripping?

It's not hitting the wall, it's actually landing away from the wall.

I understand that.

So, for us to send any enforcement notice or request him to do anything,

-I have to say it's causing either party a damp or mould issue.

-Yeah.

Whilst Syed can't see irrefutable evidence

that the poor state of the neighbour's guttering is causing damp in Fay's house,

he has noted parts of it are broken,

which is likely to cause problems elsewhere.

It is leaking onto next door's property.

This means he can help Fay.

You could see quite clearly that both joints are leaking quite badly

and your neighbour's side, on the other side of the property,

is leaking onto his path and rainwater bouncing off onto his wall

so eventually he will get damp in the ground floor level

so what I'll do now,

I will contact the owner of the property

and I will ask him to replace the gutter.

That would be brilliant. That would be absolutely brilliant.

-OK, are you happy with that?

-Yes, brilliant.

-Thank you very much. I'll keep in touch.

-Thank you very much indeed.

-All right. Thanks very much. Thank you.

-Bye.

-Bye-bye.

Private landlords have a responsibility

to clear and maintain their gutters.

Failure to do could result in the council

serving a notice to demand repairs.

Syed heads back to the Council's HQ to call

the owner of Fay's neighbouring property.

When I was there this morning it was raining and you could see

quite clearly that it's not just dripping, it's quite badly...

On both ends, not just one end.

Basically, I'm just asking you to get the gutter replaced, to be honest.

He gives the owner 28 days to repair the leaking gutter.

If people were to communicate with each other better,

then it is probably not entirely true that they don't have

to get in touch with the council, it makes life easier for everybody

but ultimately, we are the enforcing authority

and somebody has to enforce the act of Parliament.

All right. Thanks a lot. Thanks for your time. Bye-bye, now. Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Syed's not alone in his quest to resolve

a dispute between neighbours.

His local council colleagues up and down the country

face what sometimes seems like a never-ending battle

to find peace between neighbours at war.

Environmental services. Phil Rogers speaking.

'When neighbours get to have a dislike for one another,'

it is really difficult to try and resolve the situation

because they can't see past it,

'even if you offer them a reasonable solution for both parties to move forward,'

that's invariably envisaged by one as an accession

and they don't want to give way, they don't want to be seen to be

giving way and once you get into that kind of entrenched position,

it's really, really difficult to get out of.

People seem to be quite distant from each other.

You know, neighbours might not speak to each other for weeks

on end until something goes wrong and unfortunately,

when something does go wrong, they sort of just have a big fallout.

We all tend to mind our own business a little bit more

and go inside and just shut the door on it.

I don't think the generations lived together as much

as they perhaps used to but I think people now,

by the time they've got their mobiles and their computers

and their telly, they don't need to go outside and they don't.

When I bought the house that I've lived in for 30 years,

before I bought the house I did knock on the door and speak to the

neighbours before I even put an offer in for the property.

So I was making my own assessment of what my neighbours,

certainly for the foreseeable future, might be like.

Because that, in a sense, could put me off buying that property.

Fortunately it didn't and I bought it.

If neighbours spoke to each other then I'm sure

a lot of the complaints that come to my service area wouldn't come.

We find ourselves actually getting in there

and almost mediating between neighbours

to actually get that resolution

and more times than often that we will do that

without necessarily taking any enforcement action at all

but just actually getting people to talk

to resolve the issues that they have.

Six miles from the council HQ, the environmental services team

is trying to help resolve a dispute between Gill Cooper and her neighbour.

Gill's called the council to complain about her intermittent water supply.

There is water to next-door's property

and the majority of the time we don't have a supply.

Rather than a regular mains supply,

the neighbours should be sharing a water supply from a nearby spring.

Gill claims that her feed from the spring is being

shut off by her next-door neighbour Gaynor,

who strenuously denies that the problem is anything to do with her.

It's not a fair allegation.

That water supply supplies my own business where

I have to water 23 horses twice a day.

Why on earth would I put myself through that kind of manual labour,

having to pail water through my property?

With the neighbours at loggerheads, Council Officer Khush Ahmed

and his colleague Charlotte are stepping in to mediate.

'When you are dealing with issues like this'

and you've got a number of people that basically have got to

a stage where they physically can't talk to each other,

you end up as intermediary.

Up until now, Gaynor McCormack has denied anyone access

to inspect the pipework in her back yard

and to help resolve the dispute, 24 hours ago,

Kush served Gaynor with a notice of intended entry and has asked a plumber to assess the problem.

We're going to be looking at the pipework at the rear

of the property where you have got a situation.

There's a stop tap that can restrict a supply

to a number of cottages at the end

so what we're going to be doing is a test on the pipework

to see when the valve's on and off to see how it restricts the supply.

Just need to go around here.

Gill Cooper claims that Gaynor is stopping the flow of water

to her house by turning a stop valve to off.

This is the subject of what everybody's

jumping up and down about.

They think that is in a position or stuck in a position

that is hindering the supply that way.

Restricts supply to the cottage.

Which includes my supply of my business out there.

-If that was turned, Bill, if that was turned...

-If that was shut off.

-That would isolate the water.

-Cut-off that way, absolutely. That's right.

And that's not even functional. You can't, I couldn't turn that.

-It shouldn't be on there anyway.

-No.

-It's the wrong sort of fitting.

-That...

-Is insufficient.

-Well, it actually restricts the flow.

If you take that out, the inside of that would be the size of my nail.

The allegations are that that is being turned on

and off to restrict or stop supply to the cottages further on.

That's the allegation.

It's not in my interest to cut my own business off

-with the water supply.

-Would you... Would you replace that?

Would you have that taken out?

And just a pipe, you know, just a supply going...

I don't mind whether that's there or not.

There's no evidence that Gaynor has done anything wrong

but she agrees to have the valve replaced with one

that has a larger capacity and that can't be switched on or off.

With this, the plumber makes sure the current valve is fully open

so Khush can test the supply in Gill's house.

I'll go next door.

In Gill's absence, neighbour Mike Savage is keen to hear

the plumber's professional opinion.

That ball valve that you have turned on or off this morning,

is that fit for purpose?

-Not for underground.

-Thank you. Right.

-Those are isolating valves.

Those are meant for WCs and sinks and taps. For maintenance.

That's restricting the supply to the premises.

That's on, that's off, yeah?

Testing the current supply will help confirm

whether a large valve will solve the issue.

OK, that's with the valve fully open

but that's the sort of supply you're getting here.

-RADIO:

-'You're getting it now, are you?'

Yeah, it's just trickling through.

The pressure is low but the water flow is constant,

which confirms the plumber's opinion that the current valve is too small.

But there's no proof that the valve was being deliberately

-turned on or off.

-The fittings need to be changed.

You know, you need a supply with the same diameter fitting

that doesn't restrict any of the flow in any way.

Now, that, as I say,

is a matter between the people who occupy these properties.

Ideally, I mean, the supply needs to come from the well or the spring,

a separate supply that feeds into individual cottages.

And that is really down to the owner, would you agree?

Totally agree with you.

I think the residents will need to get together,

maybe to look at a larger pipework altogether

to supply their own cottages.

To ensure Gaynor changes the valve,

Khush serves an order giving her 14 days to do the work.

He will return in a fortnight to check it's been done

and hopefully see an end to this dispute once and for all.

Between 2012 and 2013,

local authorities dealt with over 700,000 incidents of fly tipping.

The cost of clear-up to us taxpayers was over £36 million.

Local authorities carried out over 425,000 enforcement actions

but only 2,200 prosecutions were brought,

so catching and convicting culprits is not easy.

Today environmental services officer Mike Robinson has struck lucky.

Sometimes I get a statement that somebody has been caught fly tipping

but don't usually get a photograph that supports that

and certainly not as clear as this one here.

The photo was sent to Mike by artist Gordon Clegg,

who saw a man dumping the fireplace on wasteland

in front of his studio and called the council.

It was just an ordinary day. I was working on the commission.

I just looked out of the window

and saw a builder's van drive onto the ground opposite.

Well, he just parked the damn thing right in front,

dropped the side down and began to unload it on the floor.

I was just aghast because it was broad daylight.

It was two o'clock in the afternoon.

I just grabbed my camera, I just took four shots of it

and I thought, "Right, take this to the council.

"Let them deal with it cos they can't get away with it."

Fly tippers can be fined up to £50,000 and in serious cases

face a prison sentence.

But on their own, Mike's photos aren't enough to bring a prosecution

so he needs to meet Gordon and fellow artist Chris

to get more evidence.

-Hello. Gordon.

-Pleased to meet you. Mike.

-Hiya.

-We have met before, haven't we? About a year ago, wasn't it?

We were looking out the window here and then it was all happening again.

I said to Gordon, can you take a picture of this guy?

-It was just by chance you seen him.

-We're always here, me and him.

-Every day.

-And I'm directly below.

-Right.

-We see this all the time.

-Blatant, yeah.

Presumably it was just from here.

He came down here and we said "ey up",

cos it was a flat backed thing full of junk and everything.

-Then he just tipped... See where the tarmac is there?

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

-Is that the picture that you showed tipping of the white fireplace?

-Yes.

I've got four of those in a sequence.

He couldn't have stopped in a better place!

You had your long lens on, didn't you?

Well, I hope the council catch him

and he's fined just so that he won't do it again.

Armed with a statement, Mike heads back to the council

to try and trace the offender and put an end to Gordon's distress.

He did it in broad daylight.

He had no consideration for anybody in the area.

He had no consideration for how the land looks, the mill looks

and my business looks, you know, with all this rubbish outside.

And it's just not on, really.

And I hope the council do something about it.

After residents called the council about a mouse infestation

plaguing their houses,

pest control officer Brian Whelan's returned to see if the householders

-have taken his advice and pest-proofed their homes.

-Hiya.

-Sorry I'm late.

-All right.

-How do?

-Hiya.

-Just in time for dinner, am I?

THEY LAUGH

-How's it been?

-We had one that got behind the fridge

so my husband sorted that but apart from that we've had none at all.

Let's have a look behind the cooker and that.

-Nothing.

-We've had no... Nothing at all.

-Maybe I won't. Maybe I will.

-None at all.

-There's none down there. Nothing there.

-There's none there.

Fantastic. Superb. Brilliant.

Right, I will give next-door a knock and see how they are.

It's good news for this house but have Brian's poison

and better pest-proofing had the same effect next-door?

-Bye, now.

-Take care.

-Bye-bye. See you.

-Hello there. Pest control. Is it OK if I check?

-Come in. Come in.

-Has everything been all right?

-Fine.

-Down here was some.

-There is some in the cupboard.

-I put them down.

-No droppings, is there?

-No fresh droppings.

-No, I haven't seen any.

As far as I know the three houses here haven't seen any.

-I've not heard anything from the other end.

-Keep my number.

You've got my number. Keep my number.

Give me a bell if you need anything again.

We'll pop round straightaway and sort it out. OK. Thanks very much.

-Thanks very much. It's been great.

-Superb.

The council came out quickly

so we didn't have any problem that way

and we've had a follow-up checkup and we can contact them any time

we need to if we have any other problems so we are very pleased.

All right. Bye, now.

It's great news for the residents

and a good job done by their new-found hero, Brian.

It's nice. I mean, that's the part about the job,

when you do a job and get an end result and people see it

and know it and they're dead happy about it, that's fantastic.

I love helping people. I love people saying,

"Brilliant, nice one. Well done."

And it is nice, whether they're old or young, it doesn't make any odds.

While the country's council officers are on the road

helping their residents,

council call centres across the UK are being kept busy by thousands

-of others looking for help.

-Good morning. Customer services.

-How can I help?

-Some call more often than others.

We do get what we call regular callers on a lot of the time.

They can be quite humorous and you get to know people,

you know them by their names.

They're always very chatty and they know you on first name terms.

Good afternoon.

They see their role as helping the council do a better job.

They physically walk round the borough, ring us up and say,

"There's a pothole on the street.

"There's dog fouling in this area. I've noticed some bin liners..."

And they make a sort of industry out of walking round

but they are actually doing us a favour

cos some people just walk past it and ignore it.

Welcome to Tameside Council. Karen speaking. How can I help?

That's the thing that I like about the job, really.

You never know what's on the end of the phone.

Somebody could be shouting because of various reasons or you get

someone who is, "Sorry for contacting you. I do apologise."

You know, at the end of the day we are there to help the public

and we always say don't hesitate to contact us.

That's what we are here for at the end of the day.

Back on the streets Syed is returning to see Fay Parker,

who called the council about her neighbour's leaking guttering and damp in her bedroom.

After an initial inspection,

Syed called the landlord to insist the damaged gutter was replaced.

Today he's back to see if the work has been carried out.

The landlord of this property was meant to replace the guttering,

which he has done, and I'm really pleased with that.

Some cases the landlord will ignore the plea from the tenant

or the neighbouring properties

but when they get in touch with the council,

in most cases we can resolve the problem without great difficulties.

Syed also checks that Fay is happy about the work that's been done.

It looks OK, doesn't it? Are you pleased with that?

Well, not before time, I must admit but, yes, I am pleased it's done.

-It's done.

-Yes. I caught him a few days after he would have got

the letter from you and I said to him,

"Are you doing those gutters?"

And he said, "I'm doing front and back." I said, "Good."

-And I have to say thank you very much.

-Not at all.

-Thank you very much.

-And I hope I never see you again!

In a nice way, yes. All the best.

-Yes. Thanks very much.

-Take care. Thanks a lot.

-Thank you. See you.

-Bye-bye.

It's all in a day's work for this local hero.

I get a buzz out of what I do and I like to help people, you know.

It's not a cliche.

I genuinely love to help and I enjoy my, you know, area of work.

Back at council HQ, enforcement officer Mike

has tracked down the man caught fly tipping on camera.

He has used the man's vehicle registration to find his address and

has invited him in for an interview with his colleague, Louise Ashton.

We are here today to conduct an interview under caution

with a gentleman that is suspected of being involved in a fly tipping

incident in the Mossley area.

We've got evidence we want to put to him,

photographs we want to show him and really

basically it is his opportunity to give his version of events.

The man admits to dumping the fireplace

but has an unusual explanation.

He claims that he went on to that land a couple of days previous

and found that fireplace,

took it to his daughter's house to use as a fire surround at her house

and she didn't approve.

She didn't like it and told him to put it back where he got it from

so a couple of days later, he did.

And what...the photographs we've got

are him putting it back where he found it.

So, but we have pointed out to him that...tough.

Tough! You've took responsibility for it.

On this occasion, Louise and Mike decide to caution the fly tipper

but if he is caught again, he could face the full force of the law.

While some residents' calls to the council have been resolved,

Khush Ahmed is returning to Thorncliffe Hall Farm,

where tensions between neighbours are still running high.

Gill Cooper shares a water supply with her next-door neighbour

and has called the council because the flow from her taps is intermittent.

When you are living in those 15 minute segments of, you know,

there's no water or you're in the shower and the water runs out,

it is a real frustration.

Two weeks ago, Khush served Gill's neighbour Gaynor

with a notice to change the valve in her yard

for a larger one that could not be turned on or off.

But the deadline has passed and the work hasn't been carried out.

So with the help of a local plumber, the council are removing

the valve and will charge Gaynor for the job later.

What we are doing is removing that stop tap

and just connecting a free-flowing pipe. So that there is...

I mean, there's allegations that's being switched on and off,

which restricts supply to these two cottages.

So, once that's removed and we've got a free-flowing pipe,

there's no way that the water can be restricted or disrupted, really.

While the plumber gets to work,

Khush chats to Gill and her neighbour, Mike,

who simply want a steady flow of water to their homes.

If that happens today, Khush, I think that's all,

on this issue, we've ever wanted.

I can't tell you how good it will feel to just get water upstairs.

-So we'll keep our fingers crossed, then, for rest of the day.

-Yeah.

With the valve in question finally removed, it's time to test

the supply to see if the flow is now steady rather than intermittent.

WATER TRICKLES

It's been an anxious wait and the pressure is low but finally,

a constant flow of water has been restored.

The main thing for me

is we've got some water coming into that again now.

That's my main issue is we've got water there

where we didn't have before.

I think it's a massive relief as far as we are concerned.

I mean, cos what we know now is that tap has been removed

and there is nothing restricting it now that's coming this way

and I think that's all we've ever asked for.

Gill and Mike will have to wait for the pressure to build up

before the water supply is back to its best

but this is a successful end to a difficult dispute.

I feel very happy today.

I mean, I feel quite satisfied that the job

that we came to do has been done.

Once it's back to normal there will be a big candlelit bath, I think.

Once again, the country's local councils

and their heroic officers have been working hard for their residents.

They've helped a whole street rid their homes of mice.

I've killed four up to now. Two big ones and two small ones.

They stopped the flow of faulty gutters.

-Yes, I am pleased it's done.

-It's done.

Responded when residents called

about someone creating a blot on their landscape.

He had no consideration for anybody in the area.

They had no consideration for how the land looks,

the mill looks, you know, with all this rubbish outside.

And put an end to a dispute about water that was far from neighbourly.

So, that's with the valve fully open

but that's the sort of supply you are getting here.

And most importantly, they dedicated themselves to their residents

when they called the council.

When you resolve a situation for an individual, they do appreciate that.

I think the public are a lot more aware of what we do

and the type of work that we can respond to.