council functions

Dear customer,

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Christchurch Borough Council

Civic Offices

Bridge Street

Christchurch

Dorset

BH23 1AZ

Tel: 01202 495000

Fax: 01202 495234

SMS: 0778 1480191

[1]http://www.dorsetforyou.com

Email (general enquiries): [2][email address]

Opening hours: Monday - Thursday 8:45am - 5.15pm; Friday 8:45am - 4:45pm

[3]Christchurch Borough Council Logo

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may be unlawful. Christchurch Borough Council ("the Borough Council") is
neither liable for the proper and complete transmission of the information
contained in this communication nor for any delay in its receipt. Any
views or opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not
necessarily represent those of the Borough Council.

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Dear Mr Carruthers

I am writing to acknowledge your request for information received today (26th).

We are dealing with your request and will be in contact with you again. In most cases we will reply within 20 working days. If, for any reason, this is not possible we will let you know.

If you have any complaints in respect of your information request, please write to the Chief Executive at the address below or complete the on-line complaint form that can be found at www.dorsetforyou.com. If your complaint is not resolved to your complete satisfaction, you have the right to apply to the Information Commissioner for a decision

Yours sincerely

DF
David Fairbairn BSc(Hons) MA Solicitor
Head of Legal and Democratic Services
and Freedom of Information Officer

Christchurch BC
Civic Offices
Bridge Street
Christchurch
Dorset BH23 1AZ

Tel: 01202 495002 (Direct Line)

show quoted sections

Dear Mr Carruthers

I refer to my e-mail dated 26 August 2008 in which I acknowledged your
request and said that I would contact you again.

As you raise a number of questions, I will set out each question in bold
type and follow it with our answer in turn.

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 Council does not hold this information.

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.

Please see the attached documents. Unfortunately we would appear not to
have information for 2006-2007.
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

In common with a number of other public and private sector organisations,
the Council has no formal definition of a complaint. It believes that
what is more important is the resolution of an incident rather than its
classification. This means the same incident can be recorded differently
( e.g., a pot-hole may be termed by some customers as a complaint, by
others as an observation, and by others as a report ). This both
obviously impacts on the validity of any complaints statistics and
also means cross-authority complaint comparisons are highly questionable.

The Council introduced a new recording system for a wide range of customer
interactions ( including complaints ), in November 2007. Prior to this,
complaints were recorded in a variety of systems. We are therefore unable
to provide data for 2005/2006 and 2006/2007. We can however provide the
number of customer interactions recorded as complaints between November
2007 - March 2008 inclusive; this totalled 584, of which 124 concerned 3rd
party organisations ( i.e., outside the control of the Council ), and 3
related to Dorset County Council.

Councillors do not formally consider complaints unless
classed as maladministration by the Local Government Ombudsman or where
a local monetary settlement is made ( as per the Local Government
Ombudsman ). In accordance with the Council's Constitution, the
Council's Scrutiny Committee considered one complaint made to the Local
Government Ombudsman during 2007/08.

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.

Under the Council's Constitution, the only complaints Councillors formally
consider are those which are submitted to the Council's Scrutiny
Committee. These are complaints that have been classed as
maladministration by the Local Government Ombudsman or where a local
monetary settlement has been made as the outcome of a complaint made to
the Local Government Ombudsman. There was one such complaint during
2005/2006 and 2007/2008.

Councillors do not formally consider complaints made about individual
Officers.

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

The Council does not believe that the formal incorporation of a monetary
compensation scheme into its complaints system is in the best interests of
its Council Tax payers or its customers, preferring instead to try and
resolve complaints through the delivery of existing services. There were
no complainants in 2005/2006 or 2006/2007 that received a
monetary compensation award outside that of a local settlement ( as per a
Local Government Ombudsman investigation ) or through the Council's
insurers. During 2007/2008 a total of £600 was paid to two complainants
( one award of £100 and one award of £500 ).

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).

2005/2006 - 3 local settlements resulting in 2 payments of £60 and
£1000. The decision to pay the local settlement of £60 was taken under
the Chief Executive's delegated powers and was not referred to the
Council's Scrutiny Committee.

2006/2007 - 0 local settlements and no cases of maladministration with or
without injustice

2007/2008 - 2 local settlements resulting in 2 payments of £350 and
£350. The decision to pay one local settlement of £350 was taken under
the Chief Executive's delegated powers and was not referred to the
Council's Scrutiny Committee

All non-financial recommendations have been met and all compensation
payments were funded by the Council, not its insurers

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).

We interpret the term 'administering' as meaning all processes involved in
the recording, investigating and resolution of complaints ( including
responses to complaints ). The Council's complaints procedure is
orientated towards the customer, allowing them to potentially complain to
any Officer at any level throughout the Council through a wide variety of
access channels; complaints can also be submitted through Councillors.
Because complaints are now recorded in the same system as a wide range of
other customer interactions, and because Local Government Ombudsman cases
and other complex investigations that may stem from a
complaint can involve several staff, the Council does not quantify its
overall expenditure on complaints administration nor can it see any
benefits in doing so.

However, the Council does have a nominated link Officer dealing with Local
Government Ombudsman (LGO) complaints, who has a nominal 30% of their time
allocated to the administration and investigation of complaints. The cost
to the Council for the three years you enquire about was:

2005/06 £12,870
2006/07 £14,040
2007/08 £15,670

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

Please can you clarify what you mean by "administrative costs". Do you
mean all staffing and establishment expenses eg Planning Officers, cost of
Civic Buildings or just those of support services such as Finance, IT and
Legal etc?

The number of staff employed by the Council were:

2005/06 average headcount 308 average FTE 257.09
2006/07 average headcount 317.5 average FTE 260.65
2007/08 average headcount 313.5 average FTE 260.78

The Council's Chief Executive's pay increases were:

2005/06 £2,088
2006/07 £2,148
2007/08 £1,857

There are no performance related payments.

Finally, if you have any complaints in respect of your information
request, please write to the Chief Executive at the address below or
complete the on-line complaint form that can be found at
[1]www.dorsetforyou.com. If your complaint is not resolved to your
complete satisfaction, you have the right to apply to the Information
Commissioner for a decision

Yours sincerely

DF
D Fairbairn BSc(Hons) MA Solicitor
Head of Legal and Democratic Services
Christchurch BC
Civic Offices
Bridge Street
Christchurch
Dorset BH23 1AZ

Tel: 01202 495002 (Direct Line)

"LEGAL NOTICE

The information contained in this communication is confidential and may be
legally privileged. It is intended solely for the use of the individual or
entity to whom it is addressed and others authorised to receive it.

If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender
immediately then destroy any copies of this message. You are hereby
notified that any disclosure, copying distribution or taking of any action
in reliance on the content of this information is strictly prohibited and
may be unlawful. Christchurch Borough Council ("the Borough Council") is
neither liable for the proper and complete transmission of the information
contained in this communication nor for any delay in its receipt. Any
views or opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not
necessarily represent those of the Borough Council.

Virus checking:

Whilst all reasonable steps have been taken to ensure that this electronic
communication and its attachments whether encoded, encrypted or otherwise
supplied are free from computer viruses, the Borough Council accepts no
liability in respect of any loss, cost, damage or expense suffered as a
result of accessing this message or any of its attachments." 

References

Visible links
1. http://www.dorsetforyou.com/

Dear customer,

This reply has been automatically generated to confirm that your email has
reached Christchurch Borough Council and will be dealt with by the
relevant Officer . Our aim is to respond to all email enquiries
within 5 working days of receipt, if applicable. If your enquiry is more
complex it may take up to 20 working days for our response.

Please do not respond to this email.

Christchurch Borough Council

Civic Offices

Bridge Street

Christchurch

Dorset

BH23 1AZ

Tel: 01202 495000

Fax: 01202 495234

SMS: 0778 1480191

[1]http://www.dorsetforyou.com

Email (general enquiries): [2][email address]

Opening hours: Monday - Thursday 8:45am - 5.15pm; Friday 8:45am - 4:45pm

[3]Christchurch Borough Council Logo

"LEGAL NOTICE

The information contained in this communication is confidential and may be
legally privileged. It is intended solely for the use of the individual or
entity to whom it is addressed and others authorised to receive it.

If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender
immediately then destroy any copies of this message. You are hereby
notified that any disclosure, copying distribution or taking of any action
in reliance on the content of this information is strictly prohibited and
may be unlawful. Christchurch Borough Council ("the Borough Council") is
neither liable for the proper and complete transmission of the information
contained in this communication nor for any delay in its receipt. Any
views or opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not
necessarily represent those of the Borough Council.

Virus checking:

Whilst all reasonable steps have been taken to ensure that this electronic
communication and its attachments whether encoded, encrypted or otherwise
supplied are free from computer viruses, the Borough Council accepts no
liability in respect of any loss, cost, damage or expense suffered as a
result of accessing this message or any of its attachments." 

References

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