Calderdale Council complaints: Calderdale grumbler sends more than 70 complaint emails to council on same topic in six weeks

Members of the council’s cabinet were discussing how complaints are dealt with when they heard about the persistent resident

They said anyone complaining to the council should have their concern addressed – but do it too many times about the same thing and it may be deemed “vexatious”.

However, that is a last resort and very few people who do complain about issues to the council fall into that category, senior councillors said

The cabinet agreed to update their policy on vexatious complaints in line with ombudsman for local government guidance.

It was important the council responded and learned from complaints but in a small number of cases they can be unreasonable in the demands made, said cabinet member for Public Services and Communities, Coun Danielle Durrans,

They would then be directed to the new policy.

In the most challenging cases, a single point of contact was allocated for complainers deemed vexatious, she said.

As an example, a resident had sent more than 70 emails on a topic since January 1, said Coun Durrans (Lab, Ovenden).

The policy aims to give clear and well-defined examples of what is unreasonable, she said.

“It will also provide an open, transparent and consistent process with new monitoring and reporting measures so that complainants can be certain we will do all we can to resolve the concerns that have been raised with us.

“However, once we are clear this has happened, which includes the right to ask for the local government ombudsman to review and respond as well, we cannot continue to enter into correspondence that is repetitious, vexatious and unreasonable – we simple so not have the resources to do that currently and it is not effective for us to use our resources in that way.

I reiterate that we see this as a very last resort,” said Coun Durrans.

Councillors heard the update was needed to address growing complexity of complaints, need for clearer definitions and examples of vexatious or unreasonable behaviour, and enhanced procedures for safeguarding staff and council resources.