Dear Sir or Madam,

I would like to know the average proportion of time the elected
representatives of your authority spend as part of their duties for
2005/2006, 2006/2007 and 2007/2008 on their main activities. The
activities that form their duties (employment) as an elected
representative are:

1 directly resolving complaints against the executive (Council
Staff) of the Council by residents; 2 sitting on committee's; 3
acting for the political parties that they represent and/or
ceremonial duties (i.e. all time not spent on sitting on a
Committee or resolving a complaint against the executive);

The total time spent by an elected representative for a Council on
these three activities should be 100 per cent of the time they
spend 'working for a Council' as an elected representative.

I would additionally like to know how much in total was paid to
local councillors to meet all their duties (including expenses) for
2005/2006, 2006/2007 and 2007/2008 by your authority, and how many
elected representatives are (and were) represented on your
authority for these years.

I would also like to know how many Complaints in total were
submitted to your Council in 2005/2006, 2006/2007 and 2007/2008 for
each year. I would further like to know how many of these
complaints were formally considered by an elected representative
for each of these years.

I would further like to know how many complaints against the
Executive (Council staff) led to the elected representatives
formally identifying that the Executive had acted wrongly for the
years 2005/2006, 2006/2007 and 2007/2008, and how many of these
formal determinations by the elected representatives identify that
there was no wrong-doing by the Executive. How many staff employed
by your authority in 2005/2006, 2006/2007 and 2007/2008 ceased to
be employed by your authority as a direct result of a complaint
against the Executive, and the Councillors identifying this to be
the case.

I would further like to know how much money the Council has paid to
a complainant (i.e. victim of a Council's wrongdoing) through its
own complaints system (i.e. excluding any intervention by the Local
Government Ombudsman, Valuation Tribunal or similar body) in
2005/2006, 2006/2007 and 2007/2008.

I would like to know how much money either in the form of local
settlement or additional formal finding of maladministration
causing injustice the Local Government Ombudsman has recommended
that your Council pay in 2005/2006, 2006/2007 and 2007/2008 (for
each year) and if the Local Government Ombudsman's recommendations
have been met in full (including any non-financial recommendations
for each year)). Please detail any recommendation that has not been
met in full and provide a copy of the Elected representatives
decision. Please additionally identify if these costs were met
directly by Council Tax Payers or the Council's insurers (excluding
self insurance by a Council)

Finally, please provide details of the financial cost of
administering all your complaints systems (including FoI and DP) by
the Executive for 2005/2006, 2006/2007 and 2007/2008 and the number
of staff employed in administering complaints and resolving these
(Full time equivalent staffing levels). Please also provide details
of your total administrative costs for 2005/2006, 2006/2007 and
2007/2008 and the total number of staff employed by your authority,
as well as any pay increase (including increments) made to the
Council's Chief Executive (Head of Paid Service) in pounds sterling
for each of these years. Please additionally identify if the Chief
Executives wages included performance related payments.

If you do not have this reasonably basic management information
related to complaints and/or identify that the costs of accessing
the information requested will be more than £450 please state this
and identify that your Authority does not have either a functioning
or accountable complaints system, and does not maintain any basic
management information related to this issue.

If you have a complaints system not fit for purpose please identify
which political party currently controls your Council, and if this
political party has appointed the current Electoral Registration
and Returning Officer through its control of the Council (with date
of their formal appointment). Please name the current Electoral
Registration and Returning Officer, and identify if they are also
Head of Paid Service, and Clerk to your Authority. Please
additionally provide any documentation maintained by your Local
Authorities Head of Paid Service identifying that they personally
do not believe it to be appropriate for your Council to have a
complaints system that is fit for purpose. This documentation
should be in existence due to the provisions of s4 of the Local
Government Act 1989.

Yours faithfully

Stuart HARDWICKE CARRUTHERS

Stuart Hardwicke Carruthers
What Do They Know

Ref: FOI/DP/EIR796

Dear Mr Hardwicke Carruthers

Re: Request for Information – Freedom of Information Act 2000

Thank you for your request for information about the proportion of time spent by Councillors undertaking their duties, about the expenditure on Councillors for each year from 2005 and for information about the Council's complaints procedure. Your request was received on the 23rd August 2008 and I am dealing with it under the terms of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000.

Your request will be processed as soon as possible, and we will try to provide the information within 20 working days as required.

In some circumstances a fee may be payable and if that is the case, I will let you know the likely charges before proceeding.

If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me. Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.

William Ward
Democratic Services Manager
(incorporating Democratic Support, Members Services & Members Allowances)
 01226 773451
0 [email address]
 01226 773498
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Dear Mr Carruthers,

I refer to my email of the 2nd September 2008 and to your Freedom of Information request of 23rd August.

I am able to provide you with a partial reply at this stage.

1 I enclose, for your information and reference, details of the allowances paid to Elected Members for the period 2005/06, 2006/07 and 2007/08

2 I am not able to give you any information about the amount of time spent by councillors in undertaking their duties as elected representatives as we do not hold or record such details.

3 I am currently researching the other information with regard to complaints etc and will write to you again in the near future once I have further details available.

Regards

William Ward
Democratic Services Manager
(incorporating Democratic Support, Members Services & Members Allowances)
 01226 773451
0 [email address]
 01226 773498
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Dear Ward , William,

response overdue

Yours sincerely,

Stuart Hardwicke CARRUTHERS

Dear Mr Carruthers,

Thank you for your email of the 28th September 2008 regarding the above.

Sorry that we have not provided a full response in accordance with the prescribed timescales. You will appreciate that your request was rather detailed and it has taken rather more time than I had originally anticipated to pull all the information together from the various departments of the Authority.

I enclose further details, for your information and reference, of the complaints received in 2005/06, 2006/07 and 2007/08 including those for the Ombudsman. It is not possible to provide any further information about these complaints at the moment as it is extremely difficult to track this information through each service except via this annual report. This matter is, however, to be addressed by our Executive Director (Customer Services and Neighbourhoods) who has recently been appointed and who has been charged with taking such issues forward following discussions within the Senior Management Team of the Authority.

With regard to the other issues raised in your FOI request I'm afraid that this is something within the remit of the Borough Secretary who has been on annual leave. The Borough Secretary had just returned from leave this week and I am, therefore, in the process or raising these issues with him and will hopefully be in a position to provide a response on within the very near future.

Once again, I apologise for the delay in responding and hope you appreciate the reason for the delay

Please do not hesitate to contact me again if you have any other concerns

Regards

William Ward
Democratic Services Manager
(incorporating Democratic Support, Members Services & Members Allowances)
 01226 773451
0 [email address]
 01226 773498
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