Do you know a council worker who has either provided you with excellent service or gone out of their way to help you?

No, nor do we, but this year – for the first time – muckspReading has launched Couldn't Care Less Exasperation Awards. Residents are being invited to nominate council staff members who they feel have gone that extra mile to annoy and frustrate them.

• Maybe it's a traffic warden who has ticketed your car despite it bearing a valid permit?
• A dustcart operative who refuses to take your recycle bin because a passer-by has contaminated it with a banana skin
• Your planning application has been refused because you didn't get Green Issues involved?

Whatever your gripe we're here to listen. Winners will be announced every April, July, October and January and they will be invited to attend a presentation and awards ceremony in the Mayor's Parlour at the Civic Centre, where there will be lots of cakes.

Jo Lovelock, Deputy Leader of Reading Borough Council, said: "I think it is really important that we find ways to publicly thank staff who go the extra mile to raise revenue and reduce costs by not doing anything. Only too often it is when something has gone right that it gets publicity, because we never put out a press release when it goes tits up."