21 June 2005

Mr J Everitt
Chief Executive
Bath and North East Somerset Council
Riverside
Temple Street
Keynsham
Bristol BS31 1LA    
Our ref:  B3/JRW/RW   
If telephoning contact:  Mrs B Hedley on 02476 820018
Email:        b.hedley@lgo.org.uk

Dear Mr Everitt

Annual Letter 2004/05

I wrote to you in January 2005 to explain our proposals for annual letters for 2005 and to invite your comments on the format of statistics and plans to make the letters more widely available in the future.  We are grateful to all those councils who replied. 

As a result of the comments received, we have decided not to include the proposed simplified heading of ‘complaints upheld in full or part’ above the figures for reports finding maladministration and local settlements.  We agree with those who say this would misrepresent those cases where a local settlement is offered by a council before I, or one of my colleagues, have decided whether to uphold a complaint; and that it could undermine this practice, which would not be to the benefit of complainants. 

There was widespread support for our proposals to put annual letters on our web site and to share the letters with the Audit Commission, so we will go ahead with this from 2006.  We will wait for four weeks after sending you the letter before making it more widely available in these ways to give you an opportunity to consider and review the letter first.  If a letter is found to contain any factual inaccuracy we will reissue it. 

I am writing now to give you my reflections on the complaints received against your authority and dealt with by my office over the last year.  I hope that in reviewing your own performance you will find this letter a useful addition to other information you hold highlighting how people experience or perceive your services.   

In addition to this narrative there are two attachments which form an integral part of this letter:  statistical data covering a three year period and a note to help the interpretation of the statistics.

Complaints received

We received 43 complaints from residents of the District. This is slightly more than in recent years but we expect to see some fluctuation from year to year.

Complaints about planning comprise almost 50% of the total complaints received this year, the number having almost doubled since the previous year. This has driven the increase in complaints against your Council, but there has been a significant rise in planning complaints nationally over the past two years.  I see no special concern over the rise locally.

Decisions on complaints

I issued no reports against your Council last year.

Two cases were settled, resulting in payments of £500 and £300 to the complainants.  In one case the Council failed to notify a neighbour of a significant amendment to plans which reinstated a roof light against which they had previously raised objections.  As a result of representations made by the complainant I asked the Council to increase the amount of compensation which it had agreed to pay.  I appreciate the Council’s willingness to be flexible in its approach to settlements.

In the second case, changes to the planning scheme of delegation meant that an application which would normally have been considered by Committee was referred to an officer.  The Council had decided that objectors who had raised objections under the earlier arrangements should be given the opportunity to address the Committee if they wished, but despite them writing twice to the Council to request this, the Council failed to refer the application to Committee.  Although I considered this had deprived the objectors of an opportunity to have their say, I did not conclude that this had undermined the Council’s decision on the application.

In one complaint about the refusal of planning permission the complainant was concerned that there were no notes made of meetings with officers before a planning application was submitted.  The Council’s procedures required meetings with professional agents to be noted and your Council agreed to change the planning manual and office practice to ensure that private individuals and professional agents receive the same service.

Your Council’s complaints procedure and handling of complaints

Ten complaints were referred back to the Council to deal with under its complaints process. This is a lower percentage than the average for all councils, and indicates to me that the Council has an effective way of seeking to resolve complaints before they come to me.  Of those ten complaints seven were resubmitted but none was upheld.

Training in complaint handling

Last year, we told you about the training we were developing for local authorities on complaints handling as part of our role in promoting good administrative practice and asked for your views.  Our pilot programme has been extremely successful with very positive feedback from the local authorities involved, so we are now increasing the amount of training that we can provide. 

A key element of the training is our Effective Complaint Handling course, specifically developed for council staff who deal with complaints as a significant part of their job.  This one-day course is aimed at those who handle complaints in the higher stages of the authority’s complaints procedure, up to the point of deciding the complaint.  A further course has been developed on Complaint Handling for Front-line Staff and other specialist areas are also being considered to meet the needs of local authorities and further promote good practice.

All courses are presented by an experienced LGO investigator, so participants benefit from their knowledge and expertise of complaint handling.  Courses can be delivered to a single local authority or to staff from a group of authorities at a regional centre.  We do have to charge for the training, just to cover our costs, but the feedback has shown that councils consider it good value for money.

I have enclosed some further information about our complaints handling training courses including contact details.

Liaison with LGO

We ask for information on complaints to be sent within 21 days of receipt, and on average your Council’s response to first enquiries has taken 30 days. Nonetheless when the information does arrive there has been a thorough review of the facts, supported by appropriate documentary evidence. This helps us reach a view on the complaint and keeps the need for further enquiries to a minimum.  The Council’s usual practice of sending two copies of the documents is helpful.

We recognise that it can be difficult for Councils to meet the current 21 day target and provide good quality, comprehensive responses to our enquires so, from 1 July 2005, we are revising this target to 28 days.

I notice that your Link Officer has not attended a link officer seminar recently.  These seminars promote a useful opportunity for link officers to find out how my office operates and assist in maintaining an effective working relationship.  If you would like to send someone from your Council please contact Mrs Hedley.

Conclusions/general observations

I welcome this opportunity to give you my reflections about the complaints my office has dealt with over the past year.  I hope that you find the information and assessment provided useful when seeking improvements to your Council’s services.  I would again very much welcome any comments you may have on the form and content of the letter. 

Last year a number of councils asked if I could visit the council to present the letter in person and to discuss it with councillors or staff.  I, and my senior colleagues, would be happy to consider any similar requests this year and we will do our best to meet them within the limits of the resources available to us.

I am also arranging for a copy of this letter and its attachments to be sent to you electronically so that you can distribute it easily within the council and post it on your website should you decide to do this. 
Yours sincerely
J R White
Local Government Ombudsman