• THANKS to Peter Rutherford for raising the issue of the “complaints office” that should really be renamed the “complaints circus”, (Camden’s complaints office is worthless, August 19).

I too, and most likely thousands of others, have had bitter experiences of the “complaints procedure” that local people, disgruntled with council services in London, have to go through, supposedly to be heard.

The entire exercise is clearly a delaying tactic designed to prevent the public from having a say or stopping decisions made by councillors behind closed doors without public scrutiny.

In effect it takes local people on a very long and pointless ride, ending with our concerns simply being crushed and thrown into the waste paper bin.

We in Brent had the same problem as Mr Rutherford when we opposed the demolition of a library / community centre in 2011.

First-tier complaints, that were supposed to be responded to within four weeks, took a lot longer. When residents queried the delay we simply received an apology and the usual brush-off response.

The same delay occurred when we were given the “democratic right” to move up to tiers two and three of the complaints procedure, finally ending some seven months later, by which time the deal to demolish and sell off part of our library complex had already been signed, sealed, and delivered.

Worse, when we took up the council’s suggestion to lodge a last-resort complaint to the local authority ombudsman, the officer in charge refused to look into our complaint fully because it was “too late anyway”.

I would be happy to join any group that Mr Rutherford organises to discuss and challenge what passes for democracy in our town halls.

LUCY K
Shoot-up-Hill, NW2