Response to complaints is too slow

OLDHAM Council is considering a new complaints procedure to speed up response times to the public.

The latest annual report from the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) found the authority took, on average, 43.1 days to respond to a grievance.

The figure is 15.1 days longer than two-thirds of metropolitan authorities and places it in the bottom performance quartile nationally.

Council chiefs will take cheer, though, from the fact that the number of complaints the LGO received about Oldham Council over the last financial year fell from 23 to 14.

Cabinet members will consider several recommendations to speed up response times at a meeting on Wednesday.

These include reaffirming a commitment to improve complaint-handling — including the appointment of a complaints manager at a cost of £40,000.

It is also proposed to undertake a twice-yearly monitoring process and produce an annual report.

Councillor Jackie Stanton, cabinet member for customer services and unity, said: “While we welcome the fall in the overall number of complaints received by the LGO, we clearly accept that our performance in responding to them has not been quick enough.

“We want to address this as a matter of urgency and investing in a new post of complaints manager will be a very important step forward.

“I would like to reassure residents that we treat complaints from every citizen with equal seriousness and try to respond as quickly and effectively as we can.

“These recommendations, however, are a very sensible and considered way to improve our performance in that area.”