Canterbury City Council Avis 

The 3 gates around the Greyfriars gardens should not be padlocked in the daytimes! Just now on hot day the gate from great stour mews into the gardens was padlocked preventing people walking through!!! last week it was the gate from the gardens to the walkway to St Peters Grove! Please sort this asap

Well I was under FROSTER CARE system and it was not what they made it out to be, honest they lied to me told me I was going into day care and it was a lie. I was born with brain damage and memory problems and learning needs and I really did have to depend on the people who were apparently meant to be caring and loving and understanding and supportive but they were not and they were abusive towards me. I was ran over by a hit and run in Kent and on a Sunday, my FROSTER dad asked me to the chippy when it was closed on Sunday. I got nothing from these and the older I got, the more effort the social worker lies ??? They left me to be abused unsafe and dumped me on the streets homeless. They aposed to sort me out money and a flat and money to say sorry for what they are responsible for my youngest years of my life.

This is in relation to Watling Street Car Park which is managed by Canterbury City Council.

I decided to treat myself to a morning exploring Canterbury city centre today. I say "treat" because it's my birthday, and parking costs £3.80 an hour. For me, that's the same price as a nice meal for one from M&S and a chocolate. I chose not to stay too long and it turned out to ultimately cost me £11.40 when I returned to collect my car from Watling Street car park.

When I reached the exit, I tried to pay at the card machine before the barrier. It gave me an error. I pressed the help button and was told to try again by the operator. I did, and got the same error. The operator then told me to use another card, which I didn't have. His next suggestion was to reverse back and pay at the pay station instead (this is an important point to keep in mind later in my review).

I explained that it was a busy Sunday, there were cars queued behind me, and reversing simply wasn't a realistic option. He told me I would have to ask the other drivers to move. Anyone familiar with this car park will know that this is completely impractical and a logistical nightmare for one person. It's a one-way system and not designed for vehicles to reverse back from the exit. There is also only one exit - so if there is a problem this heavily impacts a busy car park like it was today with the Canterbury festival on.

Trying to follow his instructions, I reversed my small Honda Jazz and then had to drive over the raised concrete kerb in order to get to this pay machine I was instructed to go to. In doing so, I scraped the underside of my car. I then parked by the pay station and, unsurprisingly, my card worked immediately. I already knew there was money on it, as I'd used it successfully just before leaving the city centre to buy myself a small birthday cactus. The problem was clearly the exit machine, not my card.

I pressed the help button again to explain that the payment had gone through at the pay station, confirming the fault was with the exit machine. The operator's response was simply that someone else had just paid by card, seemingly determined to blame either me or my card rather than acknowledge there could be an issue with the machine.

I repeatedly asked for his first name so I could make a formal complaint. He refused. I explained that I wanted to complain specifically because I'd followed his advice, which resulted in possible damage to my car, and because of the way he had handled the situation. He then claimed he'd never told me to reverse (this made me frustrated as this was not the truth).

Throughout the entire interaction, the operator was rude, patronising, dismissive, unprofessional and curt. Every time I tried to speak, he repeatedly said, "Have a good afternoon," and then ended the help call before I could finish. He also refused to let me speak to, or provide any details for, his line manager. He did not want to be held responsible or to have a written complaint about his poor services, a complete misuse of GDPR law by car park operator who refuses to be held accountable for their poor service and actions.

At that point, I left because it was obvious he had no intention of helping, listening, apologising, or taking any responsibility for either the faulty machine or the advice he'd given.

I was genuinely shaking throughout the interaction because of how I was spoken to. Once I got back on the road, I burst into tears. I am shocked that anyone working in a customer-facing role would treat someone this way.

I have little confidence that Canterbury City Council will take this seriously or offer any apology, but I sincerely hope they review the conduct of the operator who was working at Watling Street car park this afternoon.

Thank you for turning what was meant to be a small birthday treat into an experience that ended with likely damage to my car, appalling customer service, and me driving home in tears. One star would be generous.

Canterbury City Council are Useless, lacking in providing basic services and full of people who only sort their friends and family first before ever thinking about the poor tenants living in entirely hazardous homes, left to rot for years while paying rent for substandard housing.
Stop spending cash on the cathedral and church committees, trustees and tea parties for God's sake, stop supporting only the rich, stop being a broker of businesses, stop your clandestine practices. Anyone paying rent in a hazardous property should stop immediately and take this council to court. For those on benefits they in a vice, condemned to have to live in death traps. There needs to be a movement starting against these nefarious local government paid unhelpful self obsessed idiots, to force them out and replace them with humans who have real HEARTS. !!!!! STOP MESSING UP LIVES CANTERBURY CITY COUNCIL EMPLOYEES. YOURE DASTARDLY.

I contacted the council regarding a council tax question and they were excellent and efficient with their response and help.

A five star service!!

I keep receiving phone calls from this council looking for somebody called Leah to do with her housing situation. MAJOR breach of GDPR leaving voicemails with sensitive information in. I am not Leah, nor do I live anywhere near this area or ever have done. I have called over 5 times to ask for my details to be removed and I keep receiving calls and voicemails. Staff clearly cannot track down this person or the colleague that is looking for Leah. Serious need for GDPR training within this council as my data is being used and Leahs data is being shared with me via voicemail absolutely appalling

Very unhelpful staff in the council tax dept. Much more focused on extracting as much money as possible from local residents than on helping them or providing essential services.