21 July 2008
Clean bill of health for Wealden
In his annual report, Local Government Ombudsman has found no cases of maladministration at Wealden District Council.
During 2007-08, the Ombudsman received 29 complaints about Wealden District Council. This was the same number as the previous year but the Ombudsman welcomed the improvement made by Wealden in the time taken to respond to the Ombudsman's enquiries.
He found no case of maladministration in any complaints, five of which were outside the jurisdiction of the Local Government Ombudsman. In three cases, the Ombudsman found that action taken by the Council had been sufficient to meet the complainant’s request. These involved planning decisions taken by the Council which have led to complaints about overshadowing and loss of light from neighbouring properties. Since then, Wealden has agreed to improve its information handling in such cases and provide training to planning officers about loss of light issues.
"We deal with thousands of different transaction every week and it is difficult to get it right all the time. However, that is why we have a complaints procedure - to deal with those occasions when things go wrong," said Councillor Pam Doodes, Leader of Wealden District Council.
"I'm pleased to see that once again there have been no cases of maladministration at Wealden and I welcome the fact that we have improved our response time to handling complaints when they first arise."
Under the District Council's complaints procedure, complaints are first handled by the head of the relevant service. If the complainant is still not happy, the complaint will be taken up by a corporate director and an appropriate councillor. If the complaint is found to be justified, the Council will take appropriate action to remedy the situation as soon possible.
Should the complainant still not be satisfied, they can ask the Local Government Ombudsman to carry out an independent assessment.
For further information please contact the Wealden complaints help desk on 01323 443530 or email info@wealden.gov.uk
The Local Government Ombudsman's 2007-08 annual report on the handling of complaints at Wealden District Council will be published on the Council's webside.
