Complaints received by Sandwell Council total 147 for year
Sandwell Council received 147 complaints last year and had to pay out more than £7,000 in settlement fees, new figures have revealed.
The majority of complaints to the Local Government ombudsman in 2011/2012 about Sandwell Council were to do with housing issues.
There were 47 complaints about housing, 30 about environmental and public protection issues and 23 about education and children's services.
There was also 21 about benefits and tax issues. The others were to do with transport, planning corporate services and adult social care.
Of these, the ombudsman investigated 60 complaints the rest were deemed as too premature, or just needed advice to be given. Of these 60, the Ombudsman could not find enough evidence in 28 of the cases, and in seven of the cases they found there was no injustice or only minor injustice incurred.
The rest of the complaints – a total of 25 – were settled between the council and ombudsman, and complainant, and no action was taken. The number of complaints to the council was actually down on last year, by 32, as was the amount of money paid out in settlement payments.
In 2010/2011 the Council had paid out £13,041, whereas in 2011/ 2012 they paid out £7019.59.
The Ombudsman's annual review did highlight that it took 30 days on average for the Council to respond to complaints compared to the target time of 28 days.