Complaints and compliments increase at Thurrock Council

THE number of complaints made to Thurrock Council has increased resulting in almost £7,000 compensation being paid out reports the Local Democracy Reporter.

A mid-year report for 2024/25 shows the council received 1,080 complaints so far this year compared 1,030 at the same time last year.

A total of 41 per cent of complaints were upheld against a target of 38 per cent but this is an improvement on last year when 49 per cent of complaints were upheld.

The majority of complaints concerned waste management, with 399 gripes registered, many around missed bin collections.

Repairs of things like street lighting and leaks resulted in 150 complaints while the council received 96 complaints surrounding “clean and green” services such as grass cutting overflowing bins.

A report to the audit committee, which met on Thursday, showed the council responded to 91 cent of complaints within timeframe, above the 90 per cent performance target. For the same period last year 85 per cent were responded to within timeframe.

There were 33 Ombudsman decisions within the period with 13 findings of fault. In addition, £6,760 was paid out or offered by the council or its contractors as a form of complaint resolution.

The council also received 1,208 compliments compared to 1,170 for the same period last year.

Speaking at the committee meeting, Tracie Heiser, head of customer services, said her department had been looking at ways residents and councillors can request information. She said: “We’ve made some improvements and implemented a new complaints management system called Information which went live in October.

“That’s for freedom of information request, subject access requests and complaints. We are also completing a pilot with four members from different party’s in relation to a new members app. If they find it successful then we will try and do it to all members.”

Committee chairman, Fraser Massey, welcomed the report and said: “I think the report is well laid out and the data really easy to read. It’s nice to see the numbers and percentages and it’s good news about the compliments and the contact centre.”