The Council have belatedly published answers to questions posed at its meeting in December. One of the questions tabled asked about complaint levels towards the end of last year and also sought information about the source of service reports.
Concerns had been raised about whether some web generated reports had found their way into the system.
The number of complaints received by the Authority is reported as
Complaints
|
Jun – Nov 2013
|
Stage 1
|
511
|
Stage 2
|
126
|
Stage 3
|
2
|
Total
|
639
|
Stage 3 complaints are the most serious. The classification means that the complainant remains dissatisfied with the response provided by the Council
The overall number of contacts with the Council (by channel) are:
|
April
|
May
|
June
|
July
|
Aug
|
Sept
|
Total
|
Total telephone calls 2012
|
23980
|
23525
|
22654
|
22654
|
22373
|
23938
|
140851
|
Total footfall 2012
|
5775
|
6167
|
5706
|
6456
|
5997
|
6427
|
36528
|
Total Emails 2012
|
3716
|
2969
|
3232
|
4570
|
4134
|
3413
|
22034
|
“do it on line” calls 2012
|
1230
|
709
|
1101
|
1606
|
1291
|
1841
|
7778
|
Total telephone calls 2013
|
33587
|
29971
|
26320
|
34132
|
26385
|
32990
|
183385
|
Total footfall 2013
|
10415
|
9757
|
8061
|
10123
|
10259
|
12226
|
60841
|
Total Emails 2013
|
7088
|
5199
|
4474
|
5823
|
4825
|
4697
|
32106
|
“do it on line” calls 2013
|
755
|
634
|
934
|
1667
|
1471
|
2387
|
7848
|
“Smarter York” App 2013 – 200 reports.
So the number of reports of public service failings being made by York residents to the Council continues to grow.
The much vaunted Smarter York mobile phone “app” has proved to be a flop. The “app” was under-developed when launched and is very limited in its scope when compared to commercial alternatives like “My Council”.
The costs of dealing with contacts made by residents are much higher than were expected when the Council moved to its new HQ.
They bring further into question the wisdom of the decision by Labour Councillors to close down local branch offices in sub-urbs like Acomb.