12% increase driven by waste collection topping the list of grievances
THE highest number of complaints in five years have been received by Cardiff Council.
In a report delayed by the pandemic and published yesterday, the number of complaints rose from 2,550 to 2,869 in the period from April 1, 2019 to March 30, 2020 – a 12% increase.
Although most areas saw a slight drop in complaints, waste collection saw a significant rise, receiving 366 more complaints in 2019/20 than in 2018/19.
“There are over 25 million waste collections made each year, so whilst 1,256 complaints does show we can improve the service, it still represents a small proportion of work carried out,” said Councillor Chris Weaver, the Cabinet member for Finance, Modernisation and Performance.
Despite this relatively small proportion of complaints, the issue of whether the council was meeting its accessibility requirements for residents with disabilities was highlighted.
“I have concerns around the number of complaints and the fact that assisted lift collections are pinpointed as a particular issue. There are some equality implications there that perhaps need unpicking,” said Councillor Rhys Taylor, who represents Gabalfa.
The report partially puts the rise in complaints down to access issues for new properties built in Cardiff over the past year, as well as an ageing fleet of refuse vehicles and resourcing issues.
Recommendations were approved yesterday for the council to invest in a newer more reliable vehicle fleet, alongside a new communication system to alert food waste loaders to assisted collections on route.
Another point of concern was the substantial drop in the percentage of complaints responded to on time, from 87.1% in 2018/19 to 78.6% in 2019/20. This means that the Council took more than 20 working days after receiving the complaint to respond.
The pandemic was cited as the reason why the publication of the report has been delayed by several months.
Coun Weaver said: “We would normally have brought the report out at some point in 2020, either summer or early autumn.
“But staff have been providing critical services during the pandemic, including a number of our customer service staff supporting Test, Trace and Protect.”
He also said that as the report is not time-sensitive, it has been published later than it usually would and other services had been prioritised.
“It’s not a huge increase, but nevertheless it is an increase, so I’m pleased to hear Chris (Coun Weaver) talk about this as a learning point,” said Councillor Adrian Robson who represents Rhiwbina.
The leader of the Conservative Group added that it will be interesting to compare reports, given that the next Annual Feedback report is due to be published this summer.
The meet ing was told that current data suggests that council complaints will have dropped during the pandemic.
