More than 300 complaints made to Newark and Sherwood District Council in six months

A council has received more than 300 complaints in half a year — with more than a third relating to housing and assets.

Newark and Sherwood District Council received 326 complaints in the first half of the 2024-25 financial year, from April to September 2024.

This is a 66% increase compared to the same period the previous year.

Speaking at a meeting of the council’s Policy and Performance Improvement Committee on February 10, Deborah Johnson, director of customer services and organisational development at the council, said the complaints were “as expected” mostly related to front-facing services.

She said: “Feedback is another tool to look at our performance, and a key document to look at how we can improve.

“It’s not all about what’s wrong, its important to see where we get very few complaints or where few are escalated.”

36% of the complaints related to housing maintenance and asset management, 23% for environmental services, 11% for housing and estates management, 6% for revenues and benefits, and 6% for planning and development.

The main reasons for housing complaints related to delays or lack of action, as well as officer or contractors’ standards of work.

Council papers noted that “significant government campaigns such as “Putting It Right” , promotion by the council of how to complain and an improvement in the recording of complaints” contributed to the increase in complaints received.

It outlined its plans for an increased budgets, training, and resources to help improve its services.

The largest proportion of environmental services complaints related to missed bin collections, while housing and estates management saw most complaints for officer conduct or attitude.

The council also missed its 10-working-day response time for 94 of the 326 complaints, while in April to September 2023 it missed the deadline on just three — with the increased number of complaints said to be a factor in this.

The number of complaints taken to stage two — when the complainant isn’t happy with the response at stage one — also rose by 84% compared to the first half of 2023-24, with 35 raised in the first half of 2024-25.

Roger Jackson said: “In the two years of this administration complaints have nearly doubled, and most of those are from the housing department.

“I wondered whether we ought to be looking at the portfolio for housing to see what’s going wrong there?”

Rhona Holloway added: “[Housing complaints] seem to be an ongoing problem since I’ve been on the council. I just wondered whether there was service-level agreements in place, something that is monitored, because it does seem that that is a recurring theme.

“I would just like some sort of confidence that there is something in place which ensures our contractors are monitored in the right way.”

Chairman Mike Pringle confirmed it would be followed up to clarify.

He added that the increase was “not necessarily negative”, but that it was important the council recognised and responded to those that came in.

“All in all, I think the service we provide is first class,” Mr Pringle said.