LG & SC Ombudsman Recensioni 

Wanted to complain about a negligent decision made by my LA, and their subsequent uninterest in my complaints. Tried to register with LGO to submit my complaint and the site said I was already registered. Asked for a reset and the site said I don't exist!!
I give up!!

Not rectifying the damage done to 1950s women over the (proven) maladministration of lack of notification of changes to their state pension age. Disgusting!!!

Independent and a Fair hearing was what I read I could expect from the LGO in Coventry when I complained about the Council placing a lighting column in a dangerous position at my home.
What I have experienced is rudeness, failure to accept my obvious evidence against the Council being at fault, accepting mistruths and unproven evidence from the Council, dragging out the complaint over 9 months instead of the recommended 3, lied to by an investigator and an assistant Ombudsman, and a refusal to escalate the problems I was receiving to a higher authority within the service i.e. The Ombudsman.

When it became obvious the LGO in conjunction with the Council were using tactics to belittle my complaint I told them to withdraw it before a final decision was made (I had read on an Ombudsman website I could do this) but the LGO refused to let me and went ahead with a final decision in the Councils favour.
They also refused to allow a review and placed a cut down abbreviated version of their decision in the LGO archives 6 days after making it, it should not have been put in until 6 WEEKS after.
There was an obvious urgency to get their unfair findings out to the public as I did not get to know until the day after it went public.

However, if it was in the interests of the public then why not give them the full details ?

The Council and the Ombudsman have refused to comment any further and are refusing to reply to requests under the FOI Act 2000.

There is very little point in having a FOI Act when these Government authorities have a FOI Officer employed to reply in a negative way to your requests in the same way that an insurance underwriter would get out of paying out in a claim because of hidden small print in the T & Cs.

Finally, a representative I have been in touch with over this matter informs me that the Council I am referring to is like dealing with a "nest of vipers" but I don't think that is fair on vipers.

Mr X (As the LGO prefers to call me)

Making a complaint through the LGSCO is a complete waste of time. The website and proccedures are confusing and very difficult to follow. I made a valid complaint to Devon county council which was dismissed with a generic email, so I contacted the LGSCO who wouldn't even bother investigating my case. My advice to anyone who is thinking about going to them is, don't bother.

Further Update

Yet again, the LGO stonewalls. I recently sent in a complaint of a really serious issue and they immediately closed the claim.

I had proof to submit and which they didn't ask for.

Another branch of the stonewalling regime that has presided in this country over the last fifteen or so years. The so-called party politics is fake veneer for the extremist legislation being incrementally nudged into this country under our noses...

One such consequence being that crime is only crime when committed by non public-servants.

Update

The LGO, after having closed the case (written about below) said that if I were to send in my complaints from ages past as sent to a certain branch of public-office then they would keep open/reopen the matter! No way! Shut up all the time!

Excitement high, as I look forward to sitting for many nights wading through what probably amounts to much over fifty emails scattered amongst hundreds of others (on top of the organised ones in designated folders), having to remind myself of the persistent nightmarish mistreatment in the form of excuses and (what appears to be) stonewalling, it soon becomes apparent that they wish to make this process as easy and as fun as possible.

Old Review

Bad government is when the state poses itself up against the population and treats it as inferior. Is the rough tide now going to turn from only the appearance of procedure...

I wrote in an urgent report to the LGO as we in the household are and have been potentially for many years undergoing methods utilised to inflict aggravation by some pests in the area, it quite clear that this same public-body wishes to fraudulently budge us from the house in order to make money from the sale, made evident by the actions of particular officials who constantly deflect attention away from the problems as if not very serious -

corruption, collusion, and further crimes linked to both the public 'services' for cover-ups -

...and how does the Local Government Ombudsman respond: they close the case.

Admittedly, I had not uploaded directly relevant emails out of a great many to sift through, and yet this was explained as being because I was currently sitting at the computer foraging through them whilst undergoing rumbling in the floorboards (the cause of motion sickness) aimed in our direction.

Each nuisance action has caused harm over the years, the claim submitted potentially of criminal injury.

Despite having been made aware of this, the case was closed without further invite to provide applicable supporting documents when not presently in discomfort from the nearby criminal-minded.

The LGO have been contacted before and were just as stonewalling to the point it becoming obvious that they are yet another organised-crime protection racket.

Maybe a change of hands in government as made up of those who make the point of actively standing against gangs might change things for the better.

Absolute waste of time, they misapply laws to the case, and didn't follow their own guidance regarding a child out of school due to anxiety. They have written guidance on this exact situation with specific guidelines. Apparently the council can do whatever they want, ignore professional evidence, and the lgo will back the council up as being lawful. Then place the blame back on the parent: that if I was unhappy I should have gone to tribunal (even though there wasn't time to do this, made no logical sense whatsoever) and because I didn't, this meant I was happy with what the council did. Literally, council's can do what they want, don't bother delivering statutory SEN provision, and the LGO do not even find fault and ignore their own guidelines. Mind blowing how useless LGO were. The investigator even changed her decision at the last minute. I did a FOI, and found she had forgotten to read all the evidence. I question why I bothered.

Completely gaslighted. They failed to follow their own proceedures, failed to share the LAs response to the complaint, stated their is no internal complaints system and no decision makers above them. The ignored both statute, case law and their own published guidance. Their responses can only be described as vindictive.

One star is one to many, minus zero is what the LGO get from me, absolute disgust and appalling organisation,and Croydon council are just as bad they haven't listen to our side of the story had an unbiased caseworker A.Johnson made a complaint and the complaint went back to the person we were complaining about go figure then had Ms Chappell again didn't listen and I've notice her name a few times within these complaints, they are not interested, my son has had nothing from education or from social services my story is very long so it would take a year to write it down, I've now found a solicitor and I'm looking into court proceeding against the council,the LGO and social services but I totally understand how they let people down innocent vunerable people who only have us to fight for them

Date of experience: November 07, 2022

COMPLAINED ABOUT SOUTH HOLLAND DISTRICT COUNCIL..

WAS TOLD THEY WOULD DECIDE THE MERITS OF THE COMPLAINTS. THEN DID NOTHING....CORRUPTED AND MALICE AFORETHOUGHT, ROTTEN ROTTEN ROTTEN ROTTEN ROTTEN IGNORANT BRUTAL VICIOUS SERVICE.

THEY SHOULD ALL BE SACKED FOR BEING AS CORRUPTED AS THE COUNCIL.

WITHOUT PREJUDICE AND MALICE AFORETHOUGHT.

NO STARS.

I am not surprised that they LG & SC Ombudsman have not claimed ownership of this site.
I have now seen the "cover my back and I'll cover yours" in action.
Despite writing in as a group of thirty people (not once acknowledged) exposing the wasteful spending of thousands and thousands (if not tens of thousands) of pounds of public money by Westminster City Council and proof, absolute proof, that parts of Westminster City Council were not only being deliberately deceitful, but actually held a "public meeting" that was not only NOT publicised, NOT minuted, but also didn't even meet government guidlines time wise in order to give the public a chance to attend even if they had known about it! It was a scramble not only to cover maladministration and of misuse of public funds but a total excercise in covering their backs and looking out for each other.
Despite all the evidence presented, Mr M Smart (Assessment Officer) found no "injustice or service failure"
Like others have stated, telephone calls were not returned, and evidence not acknowledgd. No pretence of interest or impartiality shown.
Every member of this organisation, including Mr. M. King and Ms. N Ellis, director and executive (I sent the link for trustpilot reviews to them, no reply of course) should hang their heads in shame at the feedback on here!
Their salaries have been shared on this site (feedback posted 12 April 2022) and their lack of ownership to all this feedback is bordering on criminal.
This organisation, and therefore its employees, are funded by government grant, taxpayers monies!
The feedback on here alone proves, as many have said, that it is not fit for purpose.
The new government communities minister is Michael Gove, with luck and enough emails he will take a long hard look at the funding for this organisation.

Wrote a complaint and they closed it immediately saying I did not give the council an opportunity to respond to my complaint. After a long period of time I completely disagree. Waste of time taking it further as they are even worse than the council so it seems as they do not do anything!

This organisation has treated me appallingly badly in respect of the complaint and moved the goalposts more times than I have had hot dinners and ignored submissions I have sent them. Avoid at all and go to a no win no fee solicitor instead.

This organisation sends emails from no reply emails address, you have to log in to their website. I can't log in becasue every time they send a code the system rejects. Their complaint process says email my complaint about their service but they give no email address to send it to. Doh, and these are the people supposed to be examining the service of others, what hope is there?

They didn't even answer the initial complaint which I wrote to them about! before I knew it, the case had been closed at assessment!.

They are very corrupt, the first thing they did was run back and take sides with the LA I had complained about... They didn't even contact me to discuss the subject matter before concluding...

They were obviously busy diddling about something which was irrelevant to the topic I originally wrote to them about. The LGO is not trained. It's either they can't read or they are just hopelessly pathetic at any problem-solving of any sort.

I don't have words for them at the moment other than how I feel which is the cross between gobsmacked and appalled.

We really need knowledgeable, competently trained leaders, like the ones from the old school that knew what was what. I honestly do not know where the world is heading today. Not impressed.

They cause huge problems. It took us 19 months to get a detailed answer to our complaint from the Council so the LGSCO refused to investigate as they only deal with matters within 12 months. The problem with the Council kept recurring and they couldn’t care less because the Ombudsman said they wouldn’t investigate. We would have been much better off dealing directly with the Council or the Press. Try lawyers or investigative journalists but not the LGSCO - they very rarely investigate and then the Council thinks it can do what it likes. We’ve been back four times, each time there is a new incident - the last time the LGSCO were really rude despite support from our MP. We presented the LGSCO with new independent evidence and they effectively said ‘what part of we will not investigate as you are out of time don’t you understand.’

Please listen to me and the other reviews,do not waste any of your important time or energy dealing with this unprofessional racket. They are simply put there to look like a resolution dispute office which could not be further from the truth. They blatantly protect in my case the Wokingham council who have by the way admitted guilt but have not dealt with all the issues. From the start of my case, my case handler would not discuss my complaint with me and things went drastically downhill from there. They come up with the most baseless excuses why they cannot do anything.They even told me they cannot give any reasonable compensation for the damages wokingham council admit they have caused(and had a site visit to see).Do not listen, cannot pay compensation, will not listen to arguments that have been set out and evidenced. What are they for,as l said to look like there is a free justice system in place, there is not. Shocking attitude and they know there is nothing you can do about it, well we will see, closure would be a start and a proper intelligent court service put in place.where did they get their staff from,just awful.No stars if l could actually state my true experience.Court l am afraid is the only answer

Yet another symptom of the failed British state .

Serious concerns about claims to being unbiased by the LGO - big differences in decisions handing the same issues - no accountability poor investigating and felt judged. Seems to depend who you get - happily constricted by rules like if the local authority make a decision it’s ok as long as they show they considered and box ticked, but not one shred of evidence to back up poor decisions that lead to failure and injustice. Seems like it’s long been known there are issues here things need to change.

Do not think for one minute that your complaint will be considered by a reputable and impartial organisation. The LGO is totally biased in favour of the Council and it is quite clear that its role is to justify decisions of the Council even if their behaviour is perverse, irrational or downright dishonest.
A local sport club submitted an application which under normal circumstances would have been refused immediately. It affected me badly as a neighbour and was totally inappropriate development in a conservation area. It was approved by the Council even though it was clearly in breach of the Local Plan, the National Planning Policy Framework and the Council's Historic Environment Strategy. The Council even lied to justify its decision.
It so happens that a past president and life member of the club also holds a senior position in the Council's planning department. I cannot help thinking that this played a part.
Nevertheless the LGO found no fault which is utterly disgraceful.
Unfortunately the on-line petition to abolish the LGO does not appear to be taking off so all I can suggest is that all those affected, lobby their MPs because the LGO is misleading the public into thinking they will help complainants to obtain justice when this not true.
The LGO is a waste of taxpayers' money.

Multiple authorities failures around autism petition on change. org or can be found on gumtree under community- group & association.