Ombudsman will investigate and get some remedy for any injustice

Last updated at 12:00, Thursday, 12 March 2009

SIR – Your correspondent, Jane Micklethwaite, in your letters page of January 28 (Investigators must be impartial) reported some misleading statements about the Local Government Ombudsman service.

Dear Sir...

We are concerned that this might discourage readers from complaining to us when they have justified complaints about their council that the Ombudsman could investigate and get them some remedy for injustice they may have suffered.
The Local Government Ombudsmen are wholly independent (of national and local government) and are scrupulous in giving fair and unbiased treatment to both sides of complaints. They do not take sides.
Often complainants disagree strongly with a decision made by their council, and they want an Ombudsman to overturn it. They do not have the power to do this and it is not their job. Their job is to investigate, impartially and independently, to see if there has been fault in the way the council took that decision and if it has caused injustice to the complainant.
The Ombudsman’s investigators come from a wide variety of backgrounds, including advice agencies, voluntary sector organisations, the private sector, the NHS and central government, as well as local government. The Ombudsmen place independence and integrity at the very forefront of our staff training and quality control. Our existence depends on maintaining the confidence of complainants and those who advise them, as well as local government, that we will conduct an impartial and thorough investigation of the facts, and arrive at a fair and unbiased conclusion.
Your correspondent also reported that “findings of maladministration are upheld in only two per cent of cases...” This is very misleading, as it refers only to the number of public reports issued by the Ombudsman. Most cases are not decided this way.
In the overwhelming majority of cases where fault is found, the Ombudsman decides the case by letter, proposing that the council takes some action to provide the complainant with redress for the injustice. This could typically include payment of financial compensation, some action taken and improvements to council procedures. If the council agrees with the proposal, we call this a ‘local settlement’, and this happens in more than a quarter of cases.
Further information is available on our website www.lgo.org.uk and the Ombudsmen also have an advice service on 0845 602 1983 for people who might wish to complain about their council.
Neil HOBBS
Assistant Ombudsman
Hospital siting is major boost
SIR – The announcement of the new acute hospital facility on the existing site at Hensingham provides a major boost to the prospects of an integrated Health Campus for West Cumbria.
There are already commitments from three major universities, the three main players in the nuclear industry locally, as well as the local and regional development agencies.
The development of the campus could create up to 2,200 new jobs and inject almost £107 million into the local economy.
The project is already creating interest worldwide, particularly in the USA where it is seen as a model for areas experiencing decommissioning of nuclear facilities.
It is imperative that all the partners and stakeholders, particularly the West Cumbrian community work together to make this vision a reality.
Les HANLEY
Beach Road, St Bees

SIR – Many residents of Copeland will, rightly, have been relieved to learn that West Cumberland Hospital is to stay on the same site. But although the existing location is the best one, the reasons which have been given for keeping the hospital there present both opportunities and threats to local NHS services.
A hospital is not just a building, and it is not enough to have it on the best site. The most important thing about a hospital is the services it offers and the skilled people who provide them. We need to be certain that the full range of services can be provided by the rebuilt hospital and ideally bring back some of those which have already been lost to Carlisle.
Until very recently we were being told that the best way to provide services was a complete new hospital, and that enough money to build one had been guaranteed. That is clearly no longer true. I was never totally convinced that a new build was the best solution, but the concerns which NHS Cumbria had previously expressed about the existing hospital must be seen to be answered.
I appreciate that the NHS Trusts are working to develop plans for the future of the hospital as quickly as possible. It is extremely important, to maintain the confidence of the public and the morale of their staff, that at the earliest possible stage the NHS Trusts publish details of the solutions they are putting in place to the problems they had previously seen with the existing facilities.
During the reconstruction and refurbishment of the site it is almost inevitable that some services will temporarily have to be provided elsewhere, but it is essential that everything we were promised following the “Closer to Home” consultation comes back and that no further services are quietly moved to Carlisle under cover of the rebuild.
I will be proposing that Copeland Council asks the NHS Trusts to provide and publish a schedule showing which services will have to move elsewhere during the rebuild, and a clear indication of when they will come back to Copeland. I hope and expect that this will have all- party support.
The people of West Cumbria have demonstrated clearly that we value our local health services and will fight to retain and improve them. To do this we will need to keep a careful eye on what is going on.
Chris WHITESIDE
Conservative Parliamentary candidate for Copeland
Conservative Health Spokesman, Copeland Borough Council
Albion Square policy issues
SIR – I have a question for Copeland Borough Council (and I have sent them a copy of this letter).
Bearing in mind the council’s own policy on conservation, how can the Albion Square project even be considered in its present form?
The following extracts were taken directly from Copeland Council’s own website.
“CONSERVATION: “The Council encourages the sensitive repair and maintenance of Listed Buildings and buildings in Conservation Areas, together with the enhancement of the built environment, as a means of facilitating regeneration. There are 709 Listed Buildings and 9 Conservation Areas in the Copeland Planning Area (including Ravenglass which is in the Lake District National Park).
“Conservation work has been a true success story in the Borough, especially in Whitehaven Town Centre which is a member of the English Historic Towns Forum, and in 2001 received national awards from the British Council for Shopping Centres and the Royal Town Planning Institute.
“WHAT DO WE MEAN BY CONSERVATION? In terms of planning, conservation does not mean preservation where no change should take place. It does however call for change to be controlled carefully and high standards of design, materials and detailing should be sought. Any alterations or new development should respect the scale of existing buildings and surrounding development and should also incorporate traditional materials and design features.
“WHY IS THE CONSERVATION OF OUR BUILT HERITAGE IMPORTANT? Preserving and enhancing our built heritage is increasingly being viewed as a useful tool in the regeneration of deprived areas. A greater sense of place, and pride in that place can improve quality of life through mechanisms such as improving the environment and encouraging inward investment. The increasing significance placed on heritage issues is reinforced by the Government’s recent publications.
“CONSERVATION-LED REGENERATION: Whitehaven, Egremont and Cleator Moor all have existing Town Centre Conservation Areas. Within these areas conservation-led regeneration has been central in bringing life back into the town.
“...If you live in a Conservation Area the Council has extra controls over proposals for demolition. It will not normally be permitted where this would be to the detriment of the character of the area. If demolition is to be allowed then the council must ensure that the buildings will be replaced by those which enhance the townscape of the Conservation Area.”
Mark MALLARD
Woodbine Villas, Whitehaven

N-waste must be kept dry
SIR – Dr Burton’s ideas (letters, February 5) have great merit and deserve serious study! The crucial key to the long-term storage of radioactive waste is to keep the waste dry indefinitely, thus inhibiting any corrosion of the packaging and subsequent leaching of the radioactivity.
His proposal to drive a near horizontal tunnel (adit) with associated galleries into the side of a mountain or hill and draining any rainwater seepage to the sea would thus have this advantage. The deep repository as envisaged by Nirex in the past was seriously flawed in that water would eventually flood it unless it were continuously pumped.
Another advantage of the repository envisaged by Dr Burton is that it would be very much cheaper to construct than a deep repository and would allow the waste to be retrieved should it ever become necessary. The Swiss are already working on such a scheme.
Objectors to Dr Burton’s ideas frequently question the wisdom of shallow burial only a few tens or hundreds of metres below the summit of a mountain. They say that if there were to be an Ice Age, glaciers could grind away the top of the mountain, thus exposing the radioactive waste. This is certainly a possibility but is not very likely; perhaps in 10,000 years time we may have another Ice Age, but no one would then be living in the area. Furthermore the radioactive waste would be finely ground by the glacier and mixed with rock particles before being carried by the glacier into the Atlantic where it would be widely dispersed and do no harm. Anyway, after 10,000 years most of the radioactivity would have decayed away.
I agree with David Banks that Black Combe would be a very suitable site for such a scheme since it is near the sea. Other possibilities would be Ponsonby Fell or Swainson Knott, which lie directly behind Sellafield. Here it might be possible to run an underground railway from the site to a cavern under either of the fells. A drainage pipe could then be laid alongside the railway to bring any seepage water back to Sellafield where it could easily be discharged to sea. A good example of such a scheme is the Bex salt mine in Switzerland which is reached by a narrow gauge railway some two km long drilled through solid rock, and which has 50km of underground galleries.
Alan WHITTAKER
Cross Lanes, Seascale
Banking fiasco’s tuppence tower
SIR – Just a few possible statistics and rough calculations relating to Sir Fred Goodwin’s Royal Bank of Scotland fiasco.
It occurred to me to consider the realities of just what £600,000 a year means. To a rough approximation:
It equates to £11,538 per week.
Assuming a working week of 168 hours (unlikely, if it becomes necessary to eat, sleep, perform ‘normal’ domestic duties etc), this gives an hourly rate of £68.68.
and this gives a pay rate of 114.4p per minute – or 1.9p per second.
If, for a moment, we consider stacking 2p coins at one coin per second (non-stop) we may get somewhere near £600,000 in a year!
(Any overshoot in this calculation can be readily rectified by paying me the difference, and this amounts to a meagre 5% of £600,000 or £30,000 for the year. But then, I was always a ‘cheapskate’!)
Oh! By the way, I’m sorry, I forgot to mention, the above numbers are just the pension.
Trevor VISICK
Pica
Pensioners step forward please
SIR – Under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, would Copeland Council please disclose full details of those councillors who will eventually receive pensions from the council? If my memory serves me right, councillors’ services were once given voluntarily, for the good of the town. It may be that some councillors view their services as a ‘career enhancer’, instead of fulfilling a role as a good citizen of the town. Hearsay implies that, in certain circumstances, this may well be the case.
No doubt the taxpayers will look forward to receiving this information.
Brian PARNABY
Ullock
Traffic action needed now
SIR – Copy of a letter sent to Copeland Borough Council.
Dear Sir, I am writing to you to bring to your attention about some of the enforcement officers and also the trouble with parking on Market Place in Whitehaven I have noticed especially on Thursdays and Saturdays (market days).
Cars are always on Market Place while market traders are trying to set up and take down the stalls, which is putting lives at risk – not just the market traders but also the general public.
I do know that the market inspector puts signs out (sometimes on Saturdays and never on Thursdays) to stop cars from parking on Market Place but the market inspector and traffic wardens never seem to be doing their job.
Just lately I have noticed that the traders have been getting away with leaving the vans on Market Place all day, and I understand that the market regulations state “that all market traders’ vehicles must be moved by 10am”.
And it’s not just the market traders but also their staff get away with parking on Market Place.
The traffic wardens only book people when they have not done anything wrong and then let others off with parking illegally.
I have seen cars parked on double yellow lines without disabled badges. They have been parked all day and the wardens just walk right past.
I do understand that the wardens are just doing they job but they should get proper training to do that job.
Something should be done about the situation before someone is really hurt or killed.
Name and address withheld by agreement
Bright idea
SIR – May I through your letters column thank the Whitehaven fireman who held a charity car wash last Saturday.
I attended the car wash and I was very, very pleased when I saw the car after they had washed it. Well done lads.
PS: Would it be possible to have this every three months?
Eric BENN
Snebro Road, Whitehaven
Thank you
SIR – I am writing on behalf of the Copeland Branch of the MS Society to ask if we may thank everyone who donated to our collection in Tesco’s store on Saturday, February 27.
We raised the magnificent sum of £469.52, which will be spent for the benefit of people with MS in the local area.
Ms Brenda CAMPBELL
Branch secretary, MS Society