Planning department got 117 complaints from public

THE council’s planning department is the second most complained-about in the country, it has been revealed.

The Local Government Ombudsman, which deals with complaints from the public about councils, has published details of complaints received in 2016-17.

Cheshire East was named in 117 complaints for issues such as roads, housing and social care. This is a similar number to some of the big city councils and puts the council in the top 10 per cent for complaints – 36th out of 373 councils.

And it’s the planning department which came out the worst, with 45 complaints received, making it the second only to Cornwall Council, which had 53 complaints.

It came after a year of big planning issues, particularly in drawing up the new Local Plan, which involved said: “There are far more complaints than we should have but it doesn’t surprise me, the way the council has an obsession with cutting everything and outsourcing services.

“The level of complaints in planning is connected with the lack of Local Plan due to how it was mismanaged and the council has lost experienced planning officers and struggled to recruit.

“Each week another skeleton drops out of the cupboard at the council. There’s a dossier of disgrace, from the Lyme Green scandal and now the mishandling of air quality data.

“It’s the poor staff who have to deal with it and carry on delivering our services, at a time of cuts and when the reputation of the council is sinking.

“There needs to be a complete change in culture at the top. We want an external investigation into how the council is run by a person agreed by all the political parties.”

The Ombudsman states it’s the number of complaints upheld which matters and that a high number of complaints does not necessarily mean a council is performing poorly, but ‘may indicate an authority that welcomes and encourages feedback’.

Cheshire East Council declined to comment.

HUNDREDS call for enquiry into council, see page seven.