Every year, the Local Government Ombudsman produces an annual
report (called an Annual Letter) for all councils about the
complaints against them that have been dealt with by his office
during the past year.
The Ombudsman received 17 complaints against the Council in the
year ending 31 March 2008, a considerable decrease on the 83
received in 2006/07, when the total was distorted because of a
large number of related complaints received about one issue, the
proposed skate park in Felixstowe. The volume and nature of
complaints received in 2006/07 was a return to the general pattern
seen in preceding years - 17 received in 2005/06, and 13 received
in 2004/05.
21 decisions on complaints were made in 2006/07, compared to 77
in 2006/07, 20 in 2006/06 and 17 in 2004/05. These included 4
premature complaints which the Ombudsman referred back to the
Council, as it had not had the opportunity to deal with them first,
under its own internal complaints procedure.
Of the 17 complaints, in 10 cases the Ombudsman found no or
insufficient evidence of maladministration to warrant its
involvement. In another 2 cases it exercised its discretion not to
pursue matters further because the level of injustice caused to the
complainants did not justify further investigation. 3 complaints
were discontinued on the basis of local settlements and 2 were
outside the Local Government Ombudsman’s jurisdiction.
Follow this link to read the
Local Government Ombudman's Annual Letter for
2007/08 (new window PDF 186KB) in full.
Follow these links for
more information about the role of Local Government
Ombudsman (new window) and
how to make a complaint to Suffolk Coastal.
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