Rubbish And Toilets Top List Of Gripes By Brighton & Hove Residents - And Complaints Have Risen

Missed rubbish collections and access to public toilets topped the charts when it came to residents contacting their councillors.

A top 20 reasons why residents contacted their councillors features in the Brighton and Hove City Council Customer Insight Report for 2022-23.

The report is due to be presented to the council’s Strategy, Finance and City Regeneration Committee on Thursday (13 July).

From the end of last October to the end of March, councillors received 702 inquiries, with 386 about one of the reasons listed in the top 20.

Councillors from the former East Brighton ward received the highest number of inquiries at 91, with the top subjects including repairs, access to public toilets and rubbish and recycling collections.

Councillors for the old Preston Park and Rottingdean Coastal wards received the second-highest number of inquiries, with 68 each.

In Preston Park ward, the top three concerns were access to public toilets, rubbish and recycling and sports facilities.

In Rottingdean Coastal, the top issues were potholes, the condition of the beach and broken or uneven pavements.

Councillors received 488 inquiries which required a response from a council service and three quarters of these were dealt with within five working days.

The top 20 reasons for contacting councillors

• Rubbish or recycling collection
• Access to public toilets
• Repair – day to day, including emergencies
• Broken pavements
• Payment of council tax
• Broken pavements
• Parking enforcement
• Parking permits
• Potholes
• Condition of parks
• Condition of rented accommodation
• Community safety
• Condition of beach
• Homemove
• Council tax reduction
• Council tax
• Street fixtures
• Bus routes
• Anti-social behaviour
• Traffic calming

Complaints have gone up a quarter in the past year, according to Brighton and Hove City Council’s annual report on customer service.

The Customer Insight Annual Report for 2022-23 said that 2,201 “stage one” complaints were received, up 25 per cent compared with 2021-22.

The increase was above average for housing repairs and maintenance – the most contacted department – with complaints rising 44 per cent from 264 to 276. The same department also had a big increase in compliments.

Complaints about Cityclean, the council’s rubbish and recycling service, went up about a fifth, or 66, from 331 to 397, compared with 2021-22.

Complaints to the council’s parking team went down by 94 – or 24 per cent – from 392 to 298. They had more than doubled the previous year after a new software system caused issues for hundreds of people trying to renew their parking permits.

The report also said that the council received more than a million inquiries in the past year, with just 40,000 from people visiting the offices.

Almost two thirds of people who contacted the council last year were satisfied with the experience, the report states.

Most complaints across the council were resolved at the first stage, with 214 being escalated to stage two and, of these, 164 became the subject of an investigation. Of those, 70 complaints were upheld.

Compliments rose 1 per cent to 1,477, according to the report which is due to go before the council’s Strategy, Finance and City Regeneration Committee on Thursday (13 July).

The report included details of 5,803 responses to the council’s customer experience survey, with 59 per cent of “customers” saying that they were satisfied with services, up from 57 per cent in 2021-22.

The “national benchmark” for satisfaction increased from 56 per cent last year to 60 per cent this year.

“Dissatisfaction” with the council decreased, with 30 per cent of responders saying that they were either “fairly” or “very” dissatisfied with the council’s customer services.

Just 51 per cent of people who responded to the survey found council services easy to access.

The report said:

“Some council teams deliver regulatory, enforcement or tax collection services which may result in the customer not getting the outcome they wanted, for example, planning application being rejected.

“Data from the survey indicates that when customers did not receive the outcome they wanted, it directly impacted how they perceived the standard of service they received during their interactions with the council.

“Seventy-five per cent of respondents who indicated they received what they needed from their interaction with council services were fairly or very satisfied with the level of customer service, 16 per cent higher than the average of all respondents.

“This compares to only 1 per cent of respondents who indicated they didn’t receive what they needed from their interaction with council services and 25 per cent satisfaction of respondents who indicated they received some of what they needed from their interaction with council services.”

The departments with the highest percentage of satisfied customers were

• Register office – 99 per cent of 499 customers
• Housing repairs and maintenance – 90 per cent of 2,544 customers
• Adult social care – 86 per cent of 99 customers
• Concessionary travel – 78 per cent of 74 customers.

The departments with the lowest percentage of satisfied customers were

• Housing needs – 24 per cent of 106 customers
• Council tax – 25 per cent out of 1,049 customers
• City environment – 33 per cent of 680 customers
• Planning enforcement and policy – 33 per cent of 66 customers