Praise for complaints response time

PRAISE has been handed to a local authority for reducing the time it takes to deal with complaints.

The Local Government Ombudsman has congratulated Newcastle Borough Council for cutting its average response time from 61 days to 28 days in the year leading up to March 31.

A spokesman for the Ombudsman, which considers complaints about administrative actions of councils, said: "This now meets the 28 day target response time that we request and I commend the council for this welcome improvement."

Council leader Simon Tagg, whose cabinet portfolio covers customer service and transformation, said: "We have restructured the way complaints, comments and compliments are now dealt with by the service to ensure any issues are dealt with promptly, that they involve residents and keep them up to date with the progress of their issue.

"As well as seeing an improvement in the speed with which we handle complaints, the Ombudsman also tells us in his review that of the 11 complaints his advice team received about our council, none resulted in evidence of maladministration against us which is very pleasing."

Three complaints were about planning, one was about children and family services, one about housing, one about transport and five were about other matters.

The Ombudsman treated five of those complaints and inquiries as premature and in two cases advice was given. The remaining four complaints were forwarded to the investigative team. Of these, there was no evidence of maladministration in one case, one was withdrawn and two were treated as local settlements.