People's Champion - waste of money?

Councillor Ashley Dearnley

Rochdale Council’s controversial ‘people’s champion’ staff, that costs £150,000 per year, has dealt with an only five complaint launch in April!

Councillor Ashley Dearnley, leader of the Conservatives, said: "How can we justify this? We do not need this people’s champion.

"It is a total waste of taxpayers’ money and the sooner we realise this the better.

"Anyone would think we had never dealt with complaints before."

During just one month Councillor Dearnley has written 254 letters, made over 600 phone calls and answered around 600 emails - this is without taking into account the face-to-face meetings he has handled.

Councillor Keith Swift, the cabinet member responsible for the service, said: "In this case less is more. Before the people’s champion team was formed the council did not have a corporate complaints procedure in place, each service answered their own complaints.

"Now each service has received training from the people’s champion on how to handle complaints and stop them escalating.

"The fact that only one complaint per month is being received by the team is really good news because it shows services are dealing with complaints properly in the first place.

"We want complaints dealt with swiftly and appropriately and the people’s champion is a success because it is leading to a better service for the people of the borough."

Former Conservative Councillor Ian Duckworth said: "When the Lib Dems first proposed the creation of a People's Champion's department I commented that we have 60 people's champion's, they are called councillors. Councillor Dearnley is proof positive of this. However, I'm optimistic, it seems every time I criticise the Lib Dems they change their policy, so I look forward to the usual u-turn."