• YOUR correspondent Brian Benjamin rings true with his letter (Labour win by losing, August 5), but I would add an observation: in my view, Camden’s biggest problem is the worthlessness of its complaints office, which, if effective, could sort out many of the difficulties.

I filed a complaint about our libraries on May 11. This was ignored and so, on June 18, I wrote to the Local Government Ombudsman.

They told me that I must go through Camden’s process and suggested that I write directly to the leadership.

This I did and, as I expected, after a few fatuous emails, I was told that they would reject the complaint. They said that confirmation would not be sent out for a further four weeks.

I got back on to the Local Government Ombudsman who said that, at that point, they would follow three procedures, two of eight weeks and one of 14 weeks; that is, a further seven-and-a-half months before a decision would be made, taking the process up to the local elections in May.

Maybe this is what it is all about, stalling complaints so that the outcome comes too late to impact electoral results.

In my view there is no group of people who cost the council more money than the complaints office. They are why nothing gets better.

Maybe the council leader Georgia Gould could not care tuppence. But if she does, she needs to do something about that department before it inflicts any more damage on her shoddy administration.

There is another angle on this matter. Maybe the problem is not the council’s selfish and self-indulgent policies; maybe the problem is that the ombudsman allows them to get away with it.

Michael King’s office may be run off its feet but this is because he himself has been doing a poor job, not getting problems fixed and causing a need for more and more applications to him. He can be replaced; he should think about that.

I would welcome a discussion.

PETER RUTHERFORD
Pandora Road, NW6