Friday 25 September 2009

Making a complaint to the Local Government Ombudsman

Many people have contacted me over the last few months about issues with Barnet Council.

My advice to anyone who feels they have been badly treated is to COMPLAIN.This is the only way that services are improved and officials held to account. Bad services is tolerated because we moan and groan and we do nothing about it. The whole process of how to complain is explained on the website of the local government ombudsman.

Here's a useful link to help you understand the process.


http://www.lgo.org.uk/making-a-complaint/what-we-can-look-at/


Just remember this. Top officials who are paid by the Council, such as CEO Nick Walkley and legal boss Jeff Lustig are public servants. We all hope that they do a good job. The more we tell them what's wrong with the Council, the better a job they can do rectifying it. If no one tells them it's broken, we can't expect them to mend it, can we? Now if you complain to them about a problem and they don't deal with it, that is where the Local Government Ombudsman comes in. Whilst you may not always get the result you want from the Ombudsman, it does focus the minds of Council Officials on doing the job properly and that can only be a good thing, can't it? You can also send emails to your councillors about problems. Just follow this link, click on there name. They have to respond to you in a polite and civil manner, even when they disagree with you.


http://committeepapers.barnet.gov.uk/democracy/council/listcouncillorname.asp?intSubSectionID=13&intSectionID=9


I'd much rather that Barnet Council did everything perfectly. Then this blog would be about music and football. Till that day arrives, this blog and a few other notable Barnet blogs will do everything we can to help the Council Tax Payer of Barnet receive the service they deserve from the people we pay huge amounts of tax to. Just remember, you are the boss. You elect their Political Masters and you pay their wages. These processes are there for that reason.

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