in 126380 20080621 113403 stuart noble wrote:
Andy Hall wrote:
On 2008-06-20 22:56:21 +0100, Roland Perry said:

But we are dealing with a clueless organisation, or they wouldn't have
lost the money (misallocated it) in the first place.

Of course.

They have no incentive to try to work it pout unless you can bash them
over the head with something concrete like a cheque stub or bank
statement.

A cheque stub has zero value. I can write a cheque and it's stub (I
can just about remember how) and drop the cheque in the shredder. It
is not a proof of payment or of allocation of funds.

I am certainly not going to provide a copy of bank statements to local
authority bureaucrats. It isn't their business how I spend my money.



As far as I'm concerned, they can do what they like and can make
representations for the money. Should they wish to do that through
the courts they can do so.

That'll take a lot of your precious time.

Not really. I would simply pickup the phone, call my bank manager
and ask him to write a letter confirming payments made to the local
authority for the time in question.



Bits of paper are superfluous to being able to prove or not that
money was transferred to the recipient.
So I can go down the council office with my laptop and mobile
data card, and point at the screen? And they'd take that as *proof*?
Why on earth would you do that? What a waste of time. Let them
make representations for the money.
The 'representations' are letters saying "see you in court".

That's fine. Their solicitors will receive a string of very
lengthy letters by FAX demonstrating that monies have been paid and
when. That doesn't require the use of cheques or any other form of
treeware.

That'll take a lot of your precious time.

Ah but now it becomes a worthwhile sport. Generating letters from
standard paragraphs is very easy to do. I have a catalogue of them
accumulated over the years All of that would go in, taking me very
little time at all and including confirmation of transfer of funds.

The exposure of local government incompetence is a worthwhile
contribution to the community.



At my time of life I don't give a toss about time or money, having
enough of both to satisfy my needs. However, I still have the urge to
lob a hand grenade into my local post office.

You lack ambition. I have the urge to nuke the local & county council offices.