Decision report 201102965

Summary

Mr C is a resident of one of nearly 1500 sheltered housing units under council management. He was unhappy with the actions of the council and their agents during a consultation process for a review of sheltered housing provision. He said that the council unreasonably: convened the original consultation meetings in a limited number of centres, to which residents had to travel by bus; failed to engage a suitably qualified company to undertake a programme of research into sheltered housing provision; failed to tell family members about the consultation and the meetings arranged by the council; failed to invite relevant local councillors to the meetings; failed to make adequate arrangements in the meetings with sheltered housing residents; ignored the views of the majority of the residents; and refused to make tape recordings of the meetings available as promised.

We did not uphold any of Mr C's complaints. Our investigation found that: the original meetings were not for the purpose of obtaining all tenants' views, which were individually canvassed by questionnaire; the performance of the agents was essentially a contractual matter; it would have been unreasonable to have expected the council to widen the consultation to residents' families or to invite councillors. We also found that the council accepted that arrangements for meetings at individual complexes were not ideal, but that their decision had considered this and balanced it with the convenience of holding such meetings. There had been opposition to the changes from residents but this had been referred to and not ignored in the reporting of the consultation. We did not find that there had been a promise to tape meetings to play to those unable to attend.