Council slammed in Ombudsman's report
The number of official complaints made about Northampton Borough Council has almost doubled in the past year.
Figures released by the Local Government Ombudsman showed there were 117 complaints made against the council between April 2006 and March 2007, compared with just 59 in the previous year.
The majority of complaints were about planning, housing benefit, council tax and parking tickets.
The figures came in light of a damning government report, published in January this year, which also criticised the council, labelling some of its services among the worst in the country.
The leader of the authority, Councillor Tony Woods (Lib Dem, St David's) took on the council's top role when his party swept to victory in the May elections.
He said the council's performance was simply not up to scratch, adding: "This level of performance is just not good enough.
"I want to see an immediate reduction in the amount of complaints made to the Ombudsman."
The number of complaints is greater than those made to every other council in Northamptonshire added together.
The complaints led to the council paying out compensation to residents of £3,600. The authority also wrote off debts worth £1,297.
Ombudsman Jerry White said the high number of complaints suggested there were wider problems in the council and added there were "systematic failings" in the way the council handled housing and council tax benefit.
He said: "It's clear in some service areas, notably housing and benefits, generic administrative failings are generating more justified complaints than should be the case.
"And when things do go wrong the council is poor at recognising that it should take effective action to put things right."
Opposition leader on the council, Councillor Tim Hadland (Con, Weston) was leader of the authority when the complaints were made.
He said: "If you improve your communication with people then in all likelihood you'll increase complaints as well, so that may well be part of it."
Source: Northampton Chronicle (19/07/2007)
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