Chapter 3: Putting things right

Our aim is to obtain redress for people who have suffered an injustice as a result of something the council has done wrong (maladministration).

Where we complete an investigation and find maladministration that has caused injustice, we issue a report that includes recommendations for a remedy for the complainant. We issued reports on 74 complaints, compared with reports on 143 complaints in 2008/09. Planning matters formed the largest proportion of reports issued (23 per cent of all reports issued), with education matters forming the second largest (22 per cent) and housing and transport and highways joint third (15 per cent).

A far larger proportion of the complaints that we investigate do not need to be progressed to a report because a ‘local settlement’ is reached during the course of the investigation.

Local settlements can occur at various stages of the investigation. Councils sometimes volunteer settlements in response to our first enquiries about a complaint. Often, however, our staff, having considered the information collected from the council and the complainant, identify what appears to be fault and a consequent injustice and propose a settlement. Having considered the views of both sides, we either approve the settlement or continue with the investigation. Local settlements were agreed in 2,366 cases – 26.9 per cent of all decisions (excluding outside jurisdiction complaints). This is a similar proportion to the previous year (27.4 per cent of all decisions, excluding outside jurisdiction complaints).

Table 5 below sets out the number of remedies and settlements obtained in the year, showing the type of outcome reached. The lower figures reflect the lower overall number of complaints that have been investigated in the year. Where the remedies and settlements resulted in a payment being made, the amounts obtained or recommended came to a total of over £1.3m compared with £2.2m in 2008/09, (the previous year’s figure included a very large single amount). This figure represents the minimum we have achieved as there are currently cases where an authority has agreed to undertake a ‘before and after’ valuation (that is, the valuation of a property that has been adversely affected by neighbouring development before and after that development took place), and to pay the difference in value to the complainant, but we do not yet know the amount. Many of the individual settlements are relatively small amounts but may be linked to other actions to provide fair redress.

* Some complaints have more than one remedy description recorded against them so the number of remedies recorded is greater than the number of complaints remedied.

Date Updated: 21/07/10