Waste collection makes up 70% of all complaints at Wrexham Council

The number of complaints made to Wrexham Council have slightly increased over the past 12 months, with waste collection issues once again causing the most grievances.

In total 202 formal complaints and 431 informal complaints were made to Wrexham Council between April 2018 and March 2019. This is an increase on the 190 and 424 on the previous 12 months.

The figures have been provided as part of the annual ‘Customer Services and Complaints Annual Report’, which will be presented to scrutiny committee members on Wednesday afternoon.

In total the environment department received the most complaints during the 12 months, with 110 issues raised.

Overall 71 complaints were received in relation to waste collection. However this is down ever so slightly on the 73 made in the previous year.

Explaining how the process works in terms of formal complaints over bin collections, the report states: “Members should note the process for an issue regarding failed waste collections to reach the formal stage of the complaints procedure is for a customer to have reported three failed missed collections within a six month period with the contact centre.

“At that point, the matter is referred to the complaints team to log as an initial informal complaint and ask the relevant team leader to address this.

“Should the problems then remain, i.e. the missed collections continue to occur, the matter is then escalated for a formal complaint investigation by the Complaints Team.”

Despite frequent comments on Twitter and various Facebook pages about parking enforcement issues, only four formal complaints were made to the council – along with nine about planning, eight on highways, five in relation to Street Scene and three on transport.

A further 72 issue were raised to the housing and economy department, with repairs, estate management and property investment making up the most of the complaints.

Repairs received the most complaints (34), of which 83% were upheld/partially upheld.

A total of four complaints were made in relation to finance, five for adult social care, four in relation to education and four in relation to corporate and customer services.

As a result of investigations into the complaints, the report states that a number of actions were taken, including:

– School Admissions – Changes made to the Council website to clarify the information for applicants
– Estate Management– Improved correspondence regarding terminations and notice inspections
– Repairs – Numerous works to be undertaken at complainants’ properties
– CCTV – Recommendation for a more formal process to be implemented for applicants requesting copies of the footage
– Parks/Countryside – Additional information added to the Council website to avoid any ambiguity for parking permits

A further 431 informal complaints were made during the same 12 month period, which is explained as being: “At the informal stage, the complaint is referred to the manager/team leader of the relevant team to address with the complainant directly. Should the complainant remain dissatisfied, the complaint can be escalated for a formal investigation.”

A breakdown of the figures can be found below – with the environment department once again making up the vast majority of the complaints.

The report also documents the number of compliments made to Wrexham Council between April 2018 and March 2019.

Although down on the 222 in the 2017/18 period, a total of 192 were made in the past year. However there does appear to be some discrepancy in the report, with two different documents giving two different figures in terms of compliments – with one document giving significantly less than the 192 received.

It also notes that the “overall customer satisfaction with council services has been retained at the same level since 2017/2018 (78%) which is encouraging given the challenges faced by the council during this period.”

The report will be considered by members of the customers, performance, resources and governance scrutiny committee on Wednesday afternoon.

Top pic: Lead Member for Place – Environment & Transport Cllr David Bithell collecting waste.