Mr and Mrs S complained about the handling of their complaint against the Vale of Glamorgan Council’s Planning Department. The complaint had been investigated at Stage 2 of the Council’s complaints process by an officer from the Planning Department – the complainants did not consider the response to be impartial.
An assessment of the complaint found that the complaint should not have been investigated at Stage 2 by the department complained against, as this led to a perception of impartiality that was an injustice to Mr and Mrs S. The Council was therefore asked to investigate the handling of the complaint and to review whether the original response to the complainants was full and appropriate.
The Council agreed that a senior officer from another department would open a Stage 1 investigation of the handling of the original complaint and would also review whether the original response was appropriate. This process was requested to be completed within 6 weeks.