| Publishing organisation: | Public Services Ombudsman for Wales |
| Topic: | Anti-social behaviour, Complaint handling |
| Determination: | Maladministration |
| Tenure: | Assured |
Organisation:
| Conwy CBC |
| Country of relevance: | Wales |
| Report link: | Click here to view this document |
Mr and Mrs Smith (not their real name for legal reasons) are tenants of Clwyd Alyn Housing Association. Mr Smith is disabled with multiple health problems and Mrs Smith’s first language is neither English nor Welsh. They have a young son.
In 2003 the Smiths moved in to a Clwyd Alyn property that was next door to a family who were tenants of Conwy Council. They complained that they were subject to noise and disturbance from various members of the family and that they gradually became subject to direct intimidation, abuse and racial harassment which intensified after they gave evidence in court proceedings against the family. They said that this behaviour continued and that they made regular complaints about the behaviour of the family to Conwy County Borough Council.
They said that they had never been advised of the procedures that the Council had in place for dealing with anti-social behaviour and that the Council had not communicated with them adequately over their complaints or properly investigated or acted upon the family’s behavioural problems and repeated breaches of their conditions of tenancy.
Investigation
During the course of the investigation, information was obtained from the complainants, the Council, North Wales Police and Clwyd Alyn Housing Association regarding the Smith’s complaints and the responses of the relevant agencies.
The Ombudsman reviewed five previous public interest reports that had been issued on Conwy County Borough Council’s previous handling of complaints involving racist abuse, anti-social behaviour and its failure to consider the position of victims of anti-social behaviour in relation to the Human Rights Act 1988 and Homelessness Act 2002. The first of these reports was issued in September 2005 and the last in February 2008 under Section 21 of the Act which also upheld a complaint over Conwy County Borough Council’s failure to properly administer complaints of anti-social behaviour, making a total of six reports.
Whilst acknowledging that some administrative changes had been made by the Council as a result of these reports, the Ombudsman was concerned to find in the Smith’s complaint evidence of replication of previous failings to deal with anti-social behaviour long after the compliance period for implementation of recommendations in the earlier reports, most notably after the establishment of an anti-social behaviour unit and after the Council said it had provided additional training for staff.
The Ombudsman found a continuing lack of knowledge on the part of Council staff in dealing with enforcement action, particularly in relation to demoted tenancies, also failure to administer procedures which the Council had put in place or to communicate with Mr and Mrs Smith in an appropriate manner. He also commented on the continuing over reliance of the Council on the input and expertise of North Wales Police officers, who were the main catalysts for moving the case forward. Evidence the police provided to the Council of the criminality of the family was not acted upon in a timely or adequate manner. In marked contrast, the joint working between North Wales Police and Clwyd Alyn Housing Association was exemplary. Legal action taken by Clwyd Alyn in the absence of any meaningful action by the Council was prompt and effective and based on the same body of evidence that was available to the Council.
Determination
The Ombudsman recommended that the Council pay the Smiths the sum of £2,500 for each of the four years during which he considered the main aspects of maladministration and injustice to have occurred and recommended that a fulsome and detailed apology should be provided to them from the corporate level of the Council.
He also recommended that the Council ensures that its staff and those exercising functions on its behalf conduct a further review of procedures for dealing with homelessness and anti-social behaviour and provide additional training and procedures to remedy the shortcomings identified in this report and for evidence of this to be provided to him within three months of the date of the report.
The Ombudsman considered that as the impact of events upon the Smiths had been so profound and that because there was a lengthy history of failing to administer these areas of work adequately, despite numerous previous and agreed public interest reports on the topics, that it was in the public interest to issue another report under Section 16 of the Act with a request that it be placed before full cabinet by the Council in order to maintain the profile of these issues within the Council at a time of administrative change.