Decision details

The committee received a report from the Business and Development Manager regarding an analysis of the complaints and compliments received by the Council during 2017-18 under the Corporate Complaints, Compliments and Comments procedure.

Members said in response to the Officer’s report:

       i.          Complaints about the Waste Service were not going down as much as other services eg Planning. However the service had undergone a major review and attracted compliments as well as complaints.

     ii.          The Council received 327,000 contacts. Only a minority were complaints, most feedback was good.

In response to members’ questions the Business and Development Manager said the following:

       i.          Reports could be provided as necessary regarding monitoring of the Waste Service.

     ii.          Feedback on customer satisfaction was regularly reviewed. Staff were then coached on areas for improvement. Customer satisfaction was higher for phone contacts than email, so a specific training course could be arranged to address the issues with email contact.

Members asked to have an update report on complaints about the Waste service in the current year.

Councillor McPherson queried why the City Council’s response target should be amended to ten working days to better align with South Cambridgeshire, instead of South Cambridgeshire amending their target. The Chief Executive said that complaints that involved more than one service can often require a more detailed investigation and response. As such, they also required a longer response time, so it was better to extend the City Council’s response time.

Resolved (by 4 votes to 0) to:

       i.          Consider the draft Annual Complaints Report for 2017-18 (Appendix A of the Officer’s report), and approve for publication on the Council’s website.

     ii.          Amend the City Council’s response target to ten working days to better align with South Cambridgeshire.

   iii.          Receive an update report an update report on complaints about the Waste Service in the current year.