LG & SC Ombudsman Recensioni 359

I first of all complained to Transport for London regarding the prolific amount of graffiti plastered over public walls, and public road signs in my local area, via Resolver. It is their legal responsibility to remove the Graffiti. Transport for London had very little interest in removing the Graffiti. I then sent a few reports on to London Travel Watch. I spoke to London Travel Watch about the Graffiti problem; they stated it is not their responsibility to remove the Graffiti. I then sent 3 Complaints to the LGSCO; I had one complaint rejected today. LGSCO stated that my complaint is not very important compared to other complaints. I tried phoning the person who had sent me the rejection letter; her phone was constantly on Voicemail and in her message it was up to her if she would respond to any phone messages. I checked online, there is no way I can challenge the LGSCO's decision. I think the LGSCO are absolutely useless. Had my Graffiti reports fallen under the responsibility of my local Council, they would have removed some or all the Graffiti I had reported by now. So I now have to live with seeing huge amounts of Graffiti plastered over a public wall, located outside my kitchen window. The unsightly Graffiti in my local area is going to remain as it is. The LGSCO are a complete disgrace.

My local council screwed up a procedure, so I complained, expecting an apology and nominal compensation. My complaint wasn't resolved so I appealed. The council's final adjudication rejected my submission by conjuring up evidence that had not been mentioned before - ever.
So I went to the Local Government Ombudsman. Its response was: "I see no good reasons why he should not have used the court remedy to resolve the dispute with the Council".
If I am expected to take the Council to court, what is the point of the Ombudsman?
This is just another ombudsman disservice that has been carefully designed to deflect criticism of the useless organisations they are paid to shield.

One look at LGSCO’s abysmal Trustpilot score says it all. The reviews speak of an organization that systematically sides with councils, shielding them from accountability. They’re not here to help; they’re here to make sure councils face no consequences.
Don't even waste one minute of your time for these grifters! LGSCO functions more as a biased bureaucratic shield for councils than as a true advocate for residents. My experience, along with the hundreds of similar one-star reviews here, exposes LGSCO as a rubber stamp for council neglect. They’re biased and dismissive, and operate to defend councils, not hold them accountable.
Despite providing extensive evidence of severe disturbances affecting my daily life, LGSCO brushed aside legal responsibilities and absurdly defended my council’s inaction, claiming a “lack of resources” and "following the policy" without any evidence—effectively excusing the council from doing its job and absolving the council of any responsibility. The result? They’ve blatantly ignored both the facts and the harm to residents, like me, whose rights and well-being are dismissed as irrelevant.
The bias is overwhelming here; this organization has consistently ruled in councils’ favour, with very little regard for the actual experiences of those they’re supposed to protect.
If you’re considering a complaint, save your time and energy. The LGSCO’s approach is a cruel charade, failing the public at every turn and working in favour of council interests. This organization is not a watchdog—it’s a gatekeeper ensuring councils escape their obligations to the people.
Disgusting.

This organisation seems to have no interest in holding local council's to account for poor service and leaving their residents out of pocket. Sadly, this is why we now see such a vast ammount of unaccountability in this sector. My complaint was not pursued because it was deemed not financially damaging enough to me. This is true, but the time, effort and stress of trying to get Lambeth Council to deal with what should have been a very, very straight forward transaction (green waste subscription) was not insignificant. Sadly, I think that the LGSCO is another organisation that is not fit for purpose

Very disappointed with the service provided. Process seemed unfair/ biased and I felt like they were more interested in closing cases as they are 'exceptionally busy' than fairly investigating. If you cant have confidence that an ombudsman will look in to matters correctly then the councils are free to break processes as they wish without consequence. My issue (Planning permission) was a mirror image of one of their case studies but was dismissed at a very early stage, and the final letter sent to me ended- "If you choose to bring a claim for Judicial Review which we successfully defend, we will
look to recover our reasonable costs to protect public funds. Typically, this could mean you
paying £2,000 to £3,000 or more depending on the complexity of the claim."- which comes across as just threatening to me. After a 12 month stressful process with the council- it ends with this- poor show!

A hideous organisation that backs "social services" every time. In my case, they did not even investigate and essentially concluded that sadistic services could do whatever they wanted.

Do us all a favour and do one. There's no space for corrupt taxpayer organisations.

What an absolutely ridiculous waste of time. I wish I’d read these reviews before going to the ombudsman. It’s clear that there’s a closed-ranks mentality at play here with zero accountability. I provided detailed evidence of a planning process failure, I mean, quite literally a failure of process as per the guidelines. But the ombudsman response was that they won’t even investigate because the council claims there was no failure. What the LGO are really saying is that they have no money or resource to investigate, so they will take the council at their word. Well that's ok then isn't it, if the council say they are not at fault - what nonesense. Trebles all around at the council. Yet more obfuscation. It’s frustrating to see how this system is set up to pay lip service to accountability but is actually designed to work against the public interest. It just lets them act with impunity, all at our expense.

DO NOT waste your time, effort nor TAX MONEY on these NUGATORY CRONIES
If we all STOP using them their function and existence becomes DEFUNCT and we RECLAIM OUR Public Money back into the Public Purse!

They will "Investigate" the absolute bare minimum, if at all they do!

Don't worry about then hiding behind a Royal Mail Sorting Office PO Box. Inundate them directly here...

Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman
53-55 Butts Rd (Says it all!!!)
Coventry
CV1 3BH

They sing their own praises...

About us

For more than 40 years, we’ve been the voice of the public (GIVE OVER!). Helping (HINDERING) people put things right with their local council or adult social care provider as well as using (THE ART OF OBFUSCATION) what we learn from complaints (SHARPEN OUR TEETH IN THE ART OF BS) to improve (DESTROY) local public, and independent adult social care, services. We don’t take sides (A HUGE BS TO THAT!): we make fair decisions after listening to (ONLY THE LOCAL AUTHORITY) both sides of the story and weighing up all the evidence (ONLY FROM THE LOCAL AUTHORITY, EVEN THAT BEING SELECTIVE!). Our service is free (PAID BY YOU THE TAX PAYER!) and we are committed to delivering value for money (SEE SOME THE EYEWATERING SALARIES BELOW, THAT WE THE TAX PAYER PAY, WHILST WE THE POWERLESS PUBLIC ARE STRIPPED BARE OF ANY FORM OF JUSTICE AND MADE TO SUFFER FOR THE PRIVILIGE). We know that our success depends on the integrity (WHAT'S THAT THEN?) and skills of our staff.

Read it and weep my fellow suffering commoners!

Whilst we continue to suffer not only the INJUSTICE callously inflicted by these NUMPTIES, but also the ever increasing poverty and most certainly INCREASING Council Tax, Local Authority Cuts, Artistic Corruption etc, they gave themselves a PAY RISE!

The council tell me I have exhausted the complaints process and go to ombudsman. The ombudsman tells me to go back to the council. All correspondence has been submitted. Seriously it’s a joke. Does anybody actually ever review a case there. I’m extremely disappointed.

As with other reviews they seem to always take the councils side regardless , name on a act was not correct and misspelled was not shown / explained costs and showed no Identification which should make this void , company acting on behalf of the council when I rang removed the fees then said they didn’t when requested the phone call recording they didn’t have it (surprise ,surprise ) or logged , the body camera footage had been deleted even though I requested this from the start funny thing is the company told the Ombusman they looked at it and
They did show identification so they believed them
Even though the same case of points I made wasn’t believed without footage ? How can that make sense ?

In regards to my name not being correct while enforcing a debt they suggested that it is a matter for the court and not them so why not tell me this first instead of giving a final response ruling they were not at fault ?

Don’t bother trying with the draft response as they won’t change it then make it sound worse making you feel like the bad one after 8months of worrying and stress I would say this has added more to it and wish I had not bothered , as with other reviews this had made it harder to deal with the council I couldn’t pay my normal council tax
Bills as the reference number then didn’t exist after making the complaint and have now apparently found more debt from
Years ago that i now have to try fight myself knowing there is no one who can help

The most useless Ombudsman in Britain. Their ‘work’ is a waste of the complainants’ time and if they are paid by the public, this would be a waste of money too. The LG is another racist organisation indulging in denialism to decline investigation of discrimination and racism by the very white Lancaster Housing Team. If I could, I would give them less than a star for their racism and their spiritless, wishy-washy and numby- bumpy ‘service’ called falsely by this useless “Ombudsman” ‘fair and independent’. Rubbish!

Like most reviewers I had no choice but to escalate my stage 2 complaint about the behaviour of my Council, as they refused to have any further dialogue and deemed their final verdict and dismissed with lies my complaints. I waited 6 months almost to get a final report after the LGSO Officer investigated my issues raised. As expected the robotic response was as per in line with supporting the Council and ignoring all the evidence and making me to look like the perpetrator. This organisation is not fit for purpose and just an extension of the Council.

Not fit for purpose. Should be closed with immediate effect together with many other quangos . I would not even give it one star .No idea of the law with a could not care less attitude. Completely inept in my case at every single level. The previous Head did not respond ever

Absolutely disgusting and they are supposed to be neutral..no way on this planet are they neutral when it comes to Councils! They bend the rules ….hows this….a holiday parks licence is in breach re my concrete base being too small as per the requirements of the licence…states ‘should be big enough to support the full footprint of the caravan..must have one metre to the door opening side to walk on. My concrete base is 3ft too short and the rear hangs over saturated land causing my caravan to sink!. there is not 1 mtr to the side to walk on….confirmed breach by council licence provider, confirmed breach by Head of Place they decided that they can leave my caravan to sink and take it off when the lease is up….2026! So their land that saturated and floods, their concrete base that’s actually broke in two and moving, their breaking of the Agreement from the start, which was illegal and they took my fees for something that was not up to the standard required by the site Licence even though they were told to rectify, they chose to ignore the licence provider at the Council. So after complaint procedure gets to Ombudsman where someone who gathers the paperwork and information and remains neutral asks for paperwork that the council won’t provide so I forward it and I’m closed down end of ….i found by accident as I was going to send something across in the portal….so this neutral person decided that they were not going to forward my case to the Ombudsmen??? Stating that the overhang of my caravan on the concrete base was very minimal and they didn’t consider it required an enforcement made on the licence!…the overhang is at least 3ft and at the end of the day the Licence states ‘the full footprint….’not full footprint less 3ft!!
Company and council happy, planning permission gone through and they’re building more concrete bases for more lodges and caravans……community unaware etc
Says it all…..a licence in breach of course they don’t want an enforcement made…….absolutely disgusting!

Made a robust complaint to the LGO which took months for them to investigate, staff 'work' from home, so that says it all.
Total waste of my time, don't even think of engaging these muppets. It's a cut & paste exercise for LGO.

Raised concerns about the Ombudsman decision around a local authority not having Organisational Abuse Complex Case Procedures to conduct historic abuse cases and they threatened to ban my email address. This organisation needs an investigation into malfeasance as it is not fit for purpose.

This is one big wasting time i disability person i writing complain to IGO hi accepting fake documents from Council and closing case now i double waste time because main case waiting for allocation. Case number 23 010 023
How this is possible any inspectors not checking fake documents??? I don't know how this is possible disability person not have any help for 13 years ? and Governament Obmudsman Service dont see any problem ? I don't know bad i know somebody now mast answering for main complains.

Waste of time swear it must be like a raffle where they just pick who they help
Excuses to why they wasn't going to investigate but it felt like they was only hearing the local authorities side of things and I would be interested to know in how much of my 11 year old non verbal childs case they actually looked at think I may go to the papers and news may have a better outcome than using these thinking you are going through correct channels
Wish I had read reviews on here 1st and saved myself wasting more energy on something that's one big mess and wrong and every level

If I could put zero I would, these will not help you if you go against the county council? Make your own mind up? I made contact with them about the council charging for care more than my sister received in income at the time, I also found out she was in the hospital care also at the time and they still charged her? Never contacted any of her family about this £5500 debt and I find this disturbing? No point in ringing these, all a closed shop at the council to complain, dreadful

Without the intervention of LGSCO I would not have received a refund of care fees from Herts County Council (HCC). I had exhausted HCC's complaints procedure and they were unwilling to budge on a refund despite admitting maladministration and failings in service. When faced with the prospect of an LGSCO investigation they did a complete u-turn and refunded me. The LGSCO representative contacted me promptly and kept me well informed. I have knocked off one star from the review because HCC capitulated obviating the need for an investigation thus making it easier and quicker for LGSCO to resolve.