At 9.00pm, a vote was taken on Standing Orders and it was UNANIMOUSLY AGREED to extend the meeting for a further 30 minutes.

The public were excluded from the meeting for this item of business on the grounds that the disclosure of exempt information as defined in Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 was involved. The Committee entered into private discussions to enable a full and detailed debate of the issues raised in the report.

This report sets the outcomes and recommendations of a report by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) into a Formal Complaint made by a resident about the Council.

One of the recommendations from the report requires the appropriate committee, in this case the Council’s Audit & Scrutiny Committee, to consider the report and confirm within three months the action it has taken or proposes to take, and the lessons learnt.

 The LGSCO report advised that Ms X complained the Council did not properly investigate or act to resolve matters when she reported various nuisances from a restaurant next to her home. She says this caused her distress and adversely affected her health and enjoyment of her home.

Attached as Appendix A was the report by the LGSCO which set out in detail the nature of their investigation into the complaint against the council and the finding of fault causing injustice to the complainant.

The report also makes a number of recommendations to remedy the injustice caused which were also set out in detail in Appendix A.

The conclusions as set out in Appendix A are as follows:

They found the Council was at fault because it failed to properly:

• consider the powers available to it to enforce the boundary screening it set as a planning condition in 2017, in good time;

• consider in good time the retrospective planning applications made in 2021;

• consider the various nuisances Ms X reported via its environmental health enforcement and statutory nuisance procedures;

• communicate with Ms X or respond properly to her complaint; and

• have due regard to Ms X’s human rights under The First Protocol, Article 1, which entitles her to peaceful enjoyment of her home and land.

Appendix B attached to the report set out the recommendations from the LGSCO report and provided an update on progress against each one.

Recommendation No.3 required the Council to create an action plan to investigate all outstanding planning, environmental health, and licensing issues without delay, and decide if the Council should take any enforcement action. It should share a copy of the plan with the LGSCO. The action plan has been developed and Appendix B provides an overview of the actions taken to date for this recommendation.

In addition to the recommendations set out in Appendix B the following had been introduced.

·         Closer working together between services with one service taking the lead and identifying a single point of contact where there is a multi service issue at both informal and formal complaint stages.

·       Strategic Directors review and triage when complaints are made formal to monitor progress and have a corporate overview.

Senior Officers have considered very carefully the outcomes from this particular matter and dealt with the recommendations as set out in the LGSCO report and in addition identified the lessons learnt which are set out below:

·       Need to deal with multi service complaints both at informal and formal stage in a co-ordinated way.

·       Provision of a Single Point of Contact on multi service complaints.

·       Need to ensure corporate oversight on multi service complaints.

·       Need to ensure effective and regular communication with complainants.

·       Need to review and ensure policies are complied with by services.

·       Need for effective record keeping by services.

Following a full discussion Cllr Sankey MOVED and Cllr Naylor SECONDED the recommendations in the report.

A vote was taken by a show of hands, on each recommendation independently, and it was RESOLVED:

1. To note the report by the Local Government and Social Care

Ombudsman as set out in Appendix A attached to this report.

2. To note the update on the recommendations as set out in Appendix B

attached to this report.

3. To agree the action, it has taken or proposes to take as set out in

Appendix B attached and as set out in this report and advise the Local

Government and Social Care Ombudsman accordingly.

4. To note and agree the lessons learnt as set out in this report.

Reasons for Recommendation

The Council’s Formal Complaints Policy was reviewed and adopted in April 2021.  It sets out the process for how  we deal with complaints when customers feel let down by the service they have received. 

                                                            The meeting concluded at 21.05