No-one told the vermin that infest the grey, pebble-dashed social housing in Bridgend's Heol Dwyrain that we were in the midst of a pandemic and they should stop gnawing, urinating, fouling and making the residents' lives a misery.
No-one came along and changed the flammable cladding on any Cardiff tower blocks, fixed the overspent books of any local authorities, sorted out the mistakes made by builders in new housing estates or started any long-delayed infrastructure works.
Coronavirus may have dominated the headlines but none of the other issues that face the people and institutions of Wales have gone away. In many cases the pandemic has only exacerbated them as people have been locked in their homes and councils faced unprecedented spending pressures.
The four Local Democracy Reporting Service journalists who work with WalesOnline to cover eight councils in south Wales have had to work hard to ensure that those issues were still being covered while meetings stopped and face-to-face interviewing became difficult.
Between them Richard Youle, who covers Swansea and Carmarthenshire, Anthony Lewis, who covers Rhondda Cynon Taf and Merthyr, Alex Seabrook, who covers Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan, and Hannah Neary, who covers Bridgend and Neath Port Talbot, have ensured that the work of local authorities and the impact it has on the lives of more than a million readers across their areas is still being scrutinised.
It has not been easy. The provision of webcasting coverage of meetings is still very patchy across the local authorities. Some do it live; others wait days to upload the videos; others do not do it for all meetings at all.
Alex Seabrook, who covers the Vale of Glamorgan, had to press the local authority for days just to find out what decision they had taken on closing a local school. He reported the anger that many in the community felt at the way the broadcasting of the meeting was handled. He has continued to cover the frustration at the authority's failure the recognise the importance of openness and the chaos that ensued in its first live public broadcast, which only happened in September.
Alex has also focused on the problems faced by residents of high rise blocks in Cardiff uncertain how safe the homes they live in really are. One block of flats, Victoria Wharf, has flammable cladding and residents are being asked to pay to replace it. Another block, Century Wharf, has a forged signature on its cladding safety certificate, and a third is replacing its cladding because of concerns about its combustibility.
In Bridgend, Hannah Neary ensured that the frustration and anger of residents living a nightmare with rats running rampant through their homes received the attention it deserved.
She also ensured that a resident threatened with prosecution because of a mural she painted on her house was allowed to tell her story publicly. The backlash against the local authority led it to reconsider.
Hannah also exposed the huge problems that the residents of a Persimmon housing estate have had.
Rhondda Cynon Taf has been hit by both serious flooding during Storm Dennis and faced some of the worst losses of life due to coronavirus in Wales this year. Anthony Lewis has reported on the plight of residents and businesses affected. Here he profiled the challenges faced by businesses in Pontypridd. And here he spoke to people and traders in Merthyr Tydfil as the town faced the impending local lockdown that has since been imposed.
He was also covering the board meeting of the Cwm Taf local health authority when the executives revealed for the first time the scale of the loss of life caused by a coronavirus super-spreading event at the area's Royal Glamorgan Hospital.
In Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, Richard Youle has exposed the problems with the town's street drinking order which was in place for five years but was never properly put in place - meaning it was unenforceable. It turned out only one person had ever been convicted for breaching it.
Richard has also aired questions about Carmarthenshire council's use of the furlough scheme for 345 of its staff, reported the Swansea council leader's important plea to the people of the city as coronavirus rates grew again, and chronicled what may yet turn out to be the final chapter in the saga of the Swansea Bay tidal lagoon.
Whatever happens in the coming months as the people of Wales and their government try to find a way to live with this dreadful virus, the Local Democracy Reporting Service journalists working with WalesOnline will continue to ensure that everything else is not forgotten.
