Coventry city council nominated for 'excellence' award

[dutchman]

- despite rise in complaints



Coventry City Council has been nominated for an award recognising its "excellence" - despite complaints skyrocketing to an all-time high.

The authority has been shortlisted for ‘Council of the Year’ - awarded to authorities which demonstrate a "level of excellence and innovation that takes its work well beyond basic service provision".

But the nomination comes after a report revealed residents in the city had complained more than ever before about their service from the authority last year.

There were 136 complaints against the council to the Local Government Ombudsman between April 2017 to March 2018.

That is up 29.5 per cent from the year before, and is the highest number of complaints since the ombudsman's first annual report was published in 2005.

Complaints upheld by the ombudsman were also higher than for any other council in the West Midlands Combined Authority.

But leader of the council George Duggins said "brave decisions" had been taken to put the council in a "very good position for the future".

That is also despite the council's medium term financial strategy report warning the authority would face a £23.5 million financial gap by 2022, with cuts in services "inevitable".

Cllr Duggins said the council was still providing "quality services and balanced budgets even at a time of severe budget cuts from central government".

He added: “Partnership working also helped us secure new investment and jobs for our city, including being selected through the £80m Faraday Challenge as the home of a new Battery Industrialisation Centre that will further cement our role as a world leader in low emission vehicles and driverless technologies.

“These are very tough times for councils around the country and to be shortlisted shows that our brave decisions and our forward planning has put us in a very good position for the future.

“We look forward to welcoming the judges to Coventry so we can show them some of our exciting plans for the future and how our Council and our city are changing to meet the challenges ahead.”

[rebbonk]

Excellence? CCC?

April 1st come early?

They are the most inefficient, useless, wasteful, organisation that I have ever come across! - And that's saying something.