Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Council official is named and shamed for email errors
A red-faced council officer has been forced to apologise after sending an “embarrassing” email riddled with spelling mistakes to a member of the public.
The illiterate message was posted on Facebook by Jojo Shilling after she received it from the employee, who is a member of the authority’s environmental health department.
It was sent in response to an official complaint she had made about the cleanliness of toilets at the Prezzo restaurant in High Street, Canterbury.
The officer, who we have chosen not to name, gets off to a bad start, offering “apologies for getting back to you earlier”.
She then informs Ms Shilling she has visited “Prezzos” and reported back that “thew toiltes were clean”.
Using erroneous spaces before full stops and commas, she then goes on to say she discovered “the flush was not working to one WC”.
Assuring Ms Shilling the issue is being addressed, the officer signs off: “Thank you for your compliaint.”
Ms Shilling, who lives in Sturry, says the email left her feeling perplexed.
“It is littered with mistakes and doesn’t make sense,” she said. “I have never raised a complaint before and can see it is totally pointless.
“Is this the standard level of competency required to work within Canterbury City Council?”
Ms Shilling posted a screenshot of the email on Facebook, sparking a mixed reaction.
Philip Kiss wrote: “I work for the council, and I agree that letter is appalling. Please pursue this, as it is an embarrassment to the rest of us who try so hard.”
Debbie Wright added: “I’d be embarrassed if I wrote that drivel after eight hours in the pub!”
But some commenters claimed Ms Shilling should have cropped the employee’s distinctive name off the email, with most of it visible on the post.
Neil Fisher wrote: “There’s proper channels for this rather than public humiliation.”
Council spokesman Rob Davies described Ms Shilling’s decision to put the post on Facebook as “disappointing”, adding that the officer was given no opportunity to defend herself.
“The officer who wrote this email is mortified at the mistakes in it and apologises for them,” he said.
“While it was a simple case of being sent in a rush at the end of a day, without being properly checked before clicking send, it nonetheless falls far, far short of the standard we expect, and this has been made clear.”