THE LEADER of Thurrock UKIP has told Thurrock Council to deal with its growing mountain of complaints.
UKIP Group Leader, Cllr Graham Snell said: "It is deeply disappointing that we have such a high level of complaints going into Thurrock Council.
"We have been putting lots of complaints in but this is on the back of lots of residents coming to us with problems regarding Thurrock Council. Now we finally have a political party in this borough that takes the concerns of local people seriously. Our ‘sustained strategy’ is to improve the lives of the residents of Thurrock.
"However it is even more disappointing that, instead of dealing with these serious problems within certain departments, either senior managers or Labour Party officials appear to be briefing against UKIP rather than getting on with the job.
"If we become the largest group on the Council in May, rather than blame others for our shortcomings, we will address the root cause of these issues and provide officers the support they need to best look after the residents of Thurrock.
"We will always be honest to residents in what we can achieve with the funds available to the Council.
"Cllr Tim Aker MEP has a caseworker who daily has to deal with complaints about chronic disrepair, poor administration in the homeless department and unacceptable treatment of residents in their interaction with council staff. We also have estate teams woefully undermanned and incapable of fulfilling their role no matter how hard they work.
"Tim Aker has employed a full time caseworker in response to Labour’s decision to decimate the local advice and support organisations rather than deal with over inflated wages of senior management in the council.
"We have 73 council employees currently receiving between £50,000 – £185,000 a year as a salary. Just the top eight managers in the housing department between them take home £500,000 in salary.
"The Labour Party has turned a blind eye to residents being systematically denied their statutory rights. I promise to Thurrock, UKIP will always fight for residents to be treated with the respect and decency they deserve.
"If you have an issue that we can help with, then feel free to contact Tim Aker’s caseworker, Luke Spillman at [email protected] or call 01375 415 650."
Month Number of complaints Received
Aug-14 91
Sep-14 107
Oct-14 153
Nov-14 153
Dec-14 105
Jan-15 125
Feb-15 92
Mar-15 129
Apr-15 132
May-15 183
Jun-15 170
Jul-15 158
Aug-15 158
Total 1756
