Five complaints about Cannock Chase Council have been made to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman

The number of complaints made about Cannock Chase Council reduced last year – but the level of grievances that progressed to a second level more than doubled.

There were also five complaints made to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman made about the authority in 2024/25, compared to just two in 2023/24.

But the Ombudsman found “insufficient evidence of fault” in all five cases, a report to Cannock Chase Council’s Thursday cabinet meeting said. The issues raised in the Ombudsman complaints were access to the housing register, planning enforcement, tree maintenance, antisocial behaviour and a housing application.

During 2024/25 the council received 21 “stage one” complaints – down from 22 in 2023/24. There were nine complaints escalated to “stage two” in 2024/25, up from four the previous year.

Development was the most complained about service, with 10 stage one grievances made about it in 2024/25. There were five complaints about operations, three relating to regulatory services, two about finance and one in connection with wellbeing.

The cabinet report said: “Most contacts received by the council will be classed as service requests rather than complaints. Officers will seek to resolve any such requests at an early stage as a normal part of its business.

“If the service recipient remains unsatisfied, however, they then have access to the formal complaints process. Of the nine complaints that progressed to Stage Two, the vast majority sought to challenge decisions made by the council, with one also complaining about the quality of communications received by the complainant.

“It should be noted that complaints about the council as a housing landlord are not included in these figures and are reported separately by Housing. Complaints in that area are regulated separately by the Housing Ombudsman, rather than the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.”