THE reasons people complained to Torfaen council during the past year – and the service area that attracted the most gripes – have been revealed. 

An annual tally has also shown the number of complaints overall increased compared to the previous financial year. 

While the council received 75 complaints during 2020/21, this jumped by 22 per cent, in the period running from April 1 last year to March 31 this year. 

The borough council received 92 total complaints, which included 18 via the local government watchdog, the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales, which was also an increase on the 12 the previous year. The ombudsman however didn’t launch any investigations. 

Most complaints to the authority, 71, were dealt with at stage one of its complaints process, but three progressed to a stage two complaint. 

Of the the 92 complaints, 41 were upheld and 13 partly upheld, while 38 were not upheld. 

One stage two complaint was upheld as it was shown the council should have provided a pupil with school transport and the other two were upheld in part, one related to social services and the other was about a delay in recording dog fouling. 

Which service attracted the most complaints? 

Nearly half of all complaints were about the Neighbourhoods, Planning and Public Protection service, which had a total of 45, with 32 upheld and eight partly upheld.

Of those 29 were about the waste service, though the vast majority were made during the first half of the year and just three in the second six months.  

Most complaints, 20, were about repeated missed waste collections including assisted collections. There had been just 12 complaints the previous year. 

Bin lorries breaking down, human error, absences among crews and an increase in the volume of waste and recycling to be collected were all cited by the council as reasons behind the complaints. 

The authority hopes its plan to add additional vehicles and take on additional staff will help address the problems while it had also had to issue reminders to crews on their responsibilities and it monitored rounds and required daily updates from crews. 

The other complaints related to transport, including school transport, highways and planning/building control and were mainly about communication and delays in taking action. 

The service area which had the second highest number of complaints was social services with 14 while eight complaints were made about the resources department. 

Those included customer service complaints and about advice given by the council including in relation to council tax. 

Social services 

Social services complaints are dealt with under a separate process and of the 14 complaints eight were about adult services, with two upheld and one partly upheld, with six related to children and family services. One of those was upheld and two upheld in part. 

Complaints for children and family services were largely as a result of communication issues and included complaints from a child, about how they were informed about a change in placement, and another from a young person at a delay in support being put in place. 

One complaint was escalated to the stage two process, by the complainant, who had complained the council had failed to complete a Section 47 investigation which is initiated when it is suspected a child is likely to be at risk of significant harm. 

In adult services a complaint about safeguarding and a Section 47 investigation was escalated to stage two and independently investigated but only part of the complaint, about communication, was upheld. 

Complaints about adult services largely related to assessment, care management and review and quality of service and the council says it has identified “gaps” in information about care assessments as a result. 

What did the council get right?  

The council says it received 112 compliments from service users, up from 106 the previous year, and they ranged from praise for individuals and the community meals service and the honesty of a street cleaner who found a wallet and tracked down its rightful owner.