Waste and recycling the cause of most complaints from Solihull residents

Waste and recycling collections attracted the most council complaints from Solihull residents, new figures show. But in good news the overall number of complaints to Solihull Council reduced between 2023 and 2024, councillors heard.

In total there were 628 complaints received for the period - one fewer than the previous years. The service areas provided by the council which received the complaints were:

• Waste and recycling - 201
• Parking services - 79
• Customer and cultural services - 64
• Income and awards - 61
• Streetcare - 58
• Highway infrastructure - 46
• Planning and building control - 28
• Parks - 15

READ MORE:Significant step forward for controversial plan to convert ancient Balsall Common barn into home

Brumwish 2024 - buy a gift for a child in need

BrumWish 2024 is Birmingham Live's festive drive to get thousands of gifts to children and young people across our city - among them the homeless, the vulnerable, kids in care, kids who are poorly or struggling, and kids who have little.

There are THREE simple ways to help.

1. Buy a new gift from the Brumwish 2024 Amazon giftlist. In just a click your donation will be whizzing its way to our volunteers at Edgbaston Stadium.
2. Donate money to the appeal fund hosted by Thrive Together Birmingham - this will help pay for gifts for kids with specialist needs or specific wishes.
3. Buy a gift and, even better, rope in friends, neighbours and workmates to do the same, then drop off your pressies at Edgbaston Stadium, Edgbaston Road, B5 7QU on Friday 6th December, 10am - 3pm; Saturday 7th December, 10am - 1pm; or Monday 9th December, 10am - 1pm. Volunteers will be there to help you. Please don't wrap your gifts. You can also drop off by arrangement until Monday 16th December - contact Louise on 07469 979286.

Thanks to our partnership with #Toys4Birmingham, every single gift will find a good home in the loving care of a child living in B&Bs or hotels, hostels or refuges, children receiving support from specialist organisations and charities, and families being supported by children's centres and charities around the city.

Making up the Brumwish and Toys4Birmingham gang are Thrive Together Birmingham, Birmingham Playcare Network, Warwickshire Cricket Foundation (the charitable arm of Warwickshire County Cricket Club), Birmingham Forward Steps and BirminghamLive/Birmingham Mail.

Thank you to Amazon UK and the amazing team at the Sutton Coldfield depot for their support.

The 201 waste and recycling complaints are broken down into sections and show the majority of them, 190, were on household waste and recycling collections. Six of the complaints were on bulky waste available collections while visitors to household waste recycling centre made up five complaints.

The categories of complaints were also broken down. At the latest meeting of the resources and delivering value scrutiny board Angie Pretty, the authority's head of customer, bereavement and registration, explained: “Whilst there were no significant outstanding themes for complaints this year, service delivery at 64 per cent and how we applied policy, a decision or procedure at 19 per cent were the main categories customers chose to complain about.” The officer said 81 per cent of complaints were responded to within 20 days and overall 98 per cent of complaints within the maximum 30 days.

The figures also reveal that of the 628 complaints - 368 complaints were resolved in 15 days; 143 were resolved in 16 to 20 days. 107 took 21 to 30 days to resolve while there were 10 complaints which were resolved over 30 days.

The officer also highlighted the Local Government Ombudsman investigated nine corporate complaints of which none were upheld. “They felt we had given a full resolution or response,” she added.

Coun Kathryn Thomas said she wanted to praise the planning and building control team - which deals with planning applications, building control applications, initial notices - as officers had recognised it had worked “really hard on matters of customer service and expectations” which had helped bring the number of complaints down. “They have clearly done something really positive,” Coun Thomas said.

“I don’t know if there is learning that can be shared with other departments.” Ms Pretty replied: “I will share the comment - they have worked really hard. We are using them as our example.”

The figures were discussed at the board meeting which took place at the Civic Suite on November 11.