so mentioned to the wife last night that I will organise someone to come round and try to fix the waste disposal unit, and she informed me that the tenants we recently had in our place organised someone to come round and look at it a couple of months ago, and it was confirmed that it was dead, and unable to be resuscitated.
So last night I learnt that I need to buy a new waste disposal unit, and that my wife doesn't bother telling me anything.
At least it sounds like your dishwasher is functional