I have come to the conclusion that all this talk of ‘the economic climate’ ‘recession’ and other such by-phrases are just a load of rubbish.

Why? Because we are having a hard time finding a decent builder to do a few jobs for us.

We had a builder who came and had a look at the jobs and quoted us (what we considered) a fair price. We paid half the money, he did two of the jobs and we haven’t seen hide nor hair of him since.

The last we knew, his estranged wife had died and he had to go and sort out the children. This was months ago, long before the summer.

My husband has emailed and called with no joy. The trading standards website was no use, suggesting our best course of action was the small claims court.

My husband has emailed other building firms and had no reply at all – rude, in my opinion.

What are the jobs currently needing doing? The conservatory door, a sliding door, doesn’t open properly because the sill board on the outside was rotten and fell off.

The front porch is coming away from the wall and needs rebuilding. And at some point in the future the bathroom floor will need replacing.

So any builders pleading poverty to me will be told, try replying to your messages, you may be missing out on work!

JANICE CROTHERS

Coromandel

Abingdon