Decision Report 201303382

Summary

When the council created a multi-surface games court in the park close to Mr C's home they removed a number of trees. This dramatically changed the outlook from Mr C's window. Mr C complained when, in spite of repeated assurances that the council would replace foliage and would keep him informed, they did not do this. Mr C complained to us about this and the way in which the council responded to his complaint and enquiries.

Our investigation looked at all the available evidence, including the council's correspondence with Mr C, the internal council correspondence and the council's complaints handling procedures. We found that they had acted reasonably by meeting Mr C at the site and in determining that replanting outside Mr C's home was adequate. However, we found that his complaints about the assurances he had been given were not handled promptly and the investigation response he received was not detailed enough to address the issues arising from his complaint.

Recommendations

We recommended that the council:

• apologise to Mr C for not responding promptly to his complaint;
• review their practice with relevant staff to ensure that letters of complaint are correctly identified and handled; and
• consider how best to ensure that investigation responses are sufficiently detailed.