Decision Report 201204420

Summary

Mr C complained about the conditions imposed on his licensed premises, and about how the council handled his complaint about this.

We explained to Mr C that we could not deal with his complaint about the conditions, which had already been the subject of legal proceedings. We did investigate his complaint about the complaints handling, and found that there had been several shortcomings. The council did not adhere to their complaints procedure or inform Mr C of their intention to deviate from their usual process. They took far too long to respond to his complaints and on some occasions failed to acknowledge his letters. They also did not tell Mr C that he had a right to complain to the Standards Commissioner.

Recommendations

We recommended that the council:

• apologise to Mr C for the shortcomings identified in our investigation in respect of the handling of his complaint that have not already been the subject of an apology; and
• draw our report to the attention of the head of legal services.