Bridgend Council dealt with more than 400 complaints during 2020-21 according to a report for the council’s Governance & Audit Committee (pdf).
Of 370 informal complaints, the vast majority (83.5%) were resolved by frontline staff and only 24 informal complaints (6.5%) were upheld.
57 formal complaints were made to the council in 2020-21, of which 46 (80.7%) were resolved by staff and 10 upheld. The number of formal complaints was significantly down on the previous two years.
One complaint was made to the Welsh Language Commissioner (which is still being investigated) and 12 complaints were referred to the Public Services Ombudsman – though only five of those were referred back to BCBC for investigation.
By and large the area with the most complaints – formal and informal – was education (141 in total). Despite the name, this doesn’t include schools because they have their own separate statutory complaints procedures. It presumably relates to things like home-school transport.
There were 95 complaints about the environment/environmental health and 66 about roads and transport.
There were only 15 complaints about benefits administration, 5 complaints about adult social care and 3 complaints about planning and building control.
There were no complaints – formal or informal – about how complaints were handled by the council.
