LETTER: Dogs barking

I HAVE a complaint about the council; that is the Toowoomba Regional Council.

I HAVE a complaint about the council; that is the Toowoomba Regional Council.

In the past we've received letters from the council, and yes I know it's not the elected members of the council, however, it's their officers.

The complaint from council officers is "Your dog/s is barking".

You know it's one of those throw a sheet of paper in the air and give it both barrels of a 12 gauge shot gun type complaints, you know "like the sky is blue", "the chook lay an egg".

We and our neighbours live in an area deemed "rural residential". Shooting is not allowed.

Our neighbours have received such a letter and personally, given that I am a systems process engineer, I would inquire if the following process has been taken, (and given that this was a bolt from the blue type letter); upon receiving the complaint, (which should be registered):

Ascertain if prior complaints have been recorded at this address with this resident.

Ask if the owners of the dog or dogs, have been consulted.

If the response is in the negative, direct the complainant to do so, and allow two weeks for the persons responsible for the dog/s to fix the problem!

If they say "yes", take the details of the complaint, and tell the complainant "I will see to it that it is looked into" remembering that the person taking the complaint is a front desk person.

The next action would be to contact the person/owner, subject of the complaint, to ascertain if anyone has approached them regarding the matter, and

If they have been approached, ask what they are doing to resolve the problem, and what time frame they envisage will result in them having a better behaved dog/s.

If they haven't been approached, advise them that one of their neighbours has complained and may approach them shortly, and take no further action, until and if the neighbours do not come to an amicable outcome.

Unfortunately this kind of action, phoning the resident, may have to occur outside of normal working hours, however it would be necessary given the time it takes mail to travel within the region, thanks to Australia Post.

You may have "got my drift" that this doesn't appear to have occurred.

Incidentally our dog is dead. He used to chorus with other dogs of the neighbourhood and barking owls that occasionally visited, and was friendly to police and persons of good will.

He died of old age, and the competency of "council" is one of the reasons we don't have a new dog.

Electronic and IT solutions will have to suffice, none of which will chase away snakes and other vermin, nor guarantee the survival of the unwanted.

There could be lethal snakes lurking in the backyard, there have been in the past, at least a red belly black that I've seen, and my wife's seen browns.

The Regional Council, is sloppy, authoritarian and unanswerable to the people that pay them, hopefully the new elected council members will be able to clear the decks of the "unanswerable" and support those that genuinely do a good job to support the people of our region.

Chris Townley, Meringandan West

Originally published as LETTER: Dogs barking