Council introduce policy on unreasonable complaints

Sep 8 2010 By The Journal

OBSESSIVE pests who bombard council staff in Northumberland with unreasonable complaints are set to be shown the red card by town hall bosses.

A new policy has been drawn up at County Hall to ensure that officers and elected councillors don't spend too many of their working hours dealing with “habitual and vexatious” complainants who refuse to give up.

Action has been taken amid concerns that continuing to handle unreasonable complaints can be too time consuming and wasteful of resources. The new policy aims to help staff decide when complainants become habitual and vexatious, how to log their activities and, eventually, end all contact with them.

In a report to councillors, interim head of legal services, Andy Thom, said: “While the county council endeavours to respond with patience and sympathy to the needs of all complainants, there are time when there is nothing further that can reasonably be done to assist or rectify a real or perceived problem.”

The new policy has been accepted by members of the Liberal Democrat executive this week. It says the terms habitual and vexatious are defined as the repeated and/or obsessive pursuit of unreasonable complaints or outcomes. Mr Thom added: “This policy is intended to assist in identifying and managing persons who seek to be disruptive to the council through pursuing an unreasonable course of conduct.”

Executive member for corporate resources, Andrew Tebbutt, said: “We don't in any way want to gag people, but there comes a point where we can waste an enormous amount of time on something that can't be changed.”