Contact:
  • Democratic Services
  • Address:

    Riverside, Keynsham

  • E-mail:
    democratic_services@bathnes.gov.uk
  • Telephone:
    01225 394360
  • Fax:
    01225  394439
  • Minicom:
    N/A
  • Page Updated:
    19/07/2008
  • Author:
    Anne Larkins
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The Local Government Ombudsman's Annual Letter 2004/05 - Introduction

The Local Government Ombudsman has issued his annual letter to Bath and North East Somerset Council on the handling of complaints in 2004/05.  A copy is shown below.  The letter is a public document.

Key points emerging in the letter about how this Council handles complaints against it are set out below.

·        The Ombudsman has issued no statutory reports against the Council or no findings of maladministration and/or injustice.

·        The Ombudsman states that the Council has an “effective way of seeking to resolve complaints before they come to him”. As evidence for this he cites the lower than national average percentage of complaints referred back by the Ombudsman to the Council to deal with under its own procedures.

·        The Ombudsman comments favourably on the quality of responses from the Council to the complaints he has investigated describing them as containing “a thorough review of the facts supported by appropriate documentary evidence…(which) helps (the Ombudsman) to reach a view on the complaint and keeps the need for further enquiries to a minimum.”

·        The average period of time taken by the Council to return responses to the Ombudsman is in line with that of the majority of unitary authorities although it is outside the target timescale set by the Ombudsman.  The letter acknowledges that the quality of responses to complaints is important and the Ombudsman is extending the target timescale nationally to take account of that with effect from the current year.

·        There has been a significant rise in complaints on planning matters which constitute, as they have done for the past several years, the bulk of complaints made against the Council. The Ombudsman regards the rise in complaints on planning matters as in line with national trends and comments that he “sees no special concern over the rise locally”.

For further information on the Local Government Ombudsman in relation to Bath and North East Somerset Council please contact Tom Dunne, Democratic Services Manager and Ombudsman Link Officer or Lyneve Thyer in Democratic Services at: