Is this what I pay my council tax for?

The council closed my road earlier this week to 'replace the pavement surface' which to me seems a total waste of effort - there was nothing wrong with it. Then I dicovered they are doing the same at my parents' road where the pavement has been in the same condition for my entire living memory (since at least the Queen's Silver Jubilee!).

Then today I happened to be passing the nearby Community Recycling Centre and saw this sight.

The 'attendants' (that is what I'll call the council employees who man the site), often retrieve items that have been chucked by the public for their own use. Here we see one of the 'attendants' at work sitting on some retrieved garden furniture.