Payouts for residents over council complaints

SEVEN residents received payouts totalling more than £2,600 after complaining to the Local Government Ombudsman about Hull Council.

The largest amount paid – 750 – followed a delay in providing adaptations for a disabled child.

In that case the authority provided what was needed as well as paying compensation.

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The payouts were outlined in the annual letter to the council by Local Government Ombudsman Anne Seex, who considered 72 complaints against the council, in the year up to March.

Some were not pursued and in nearly half the cases Mrs Seex said she found no evidence of maladministration by the council.

However in 22 cases – up from 15 in 2008 to 2009 – the authority agreed to settle "accepting that something had gone wrong" and that they should provide some form of remedy.

She didn't decide to publish any formal reports for the eighth successive year.

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A breakdown shows that the highest numbers of complaints were about housing (23), followed by education (14) and six over planning and building control.

Mrs Seex congratulated the council for its continuing efforts to cut the time it takes to respond to inquiries. The council is now averaging 18 days against a 28 day deadline.

A report by head of customer services, Andy Brown, is due to be discussed at the Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee on November 1.

He said although there was an increase in the number of cases settled the previous year "many local settlements were non-financial and the Ombudsman had previously remarked that the council's willingness to settle complaints, once persuaded something has gone wrong, is very much to its credit."

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Mrs Seex, the former chief executive of Norwich City Council from 2000 to 2005, handles complaints from Birmingham City, Solihull, Cheshire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, Warwickshire and the North of England.