Russell O’Keefe, Strategic Director Corporate & Community Services, to give an update to the Parish Conference.

Russell O’Keefe, Strategic Director Corporate & Community Services informed the Conference that a unique hotline had been set up for Parish Councils. A total of 230 calls had been attended to in an average of 38 seconds, being the average pick up time.

Points raised by Parish Councils included:

·         What was an acceptable response time?

·         What was the process followed once an issue was logged?

·         Planning enforcement issues not answered.

·         No feedback was provided if response was going to be delayed.

·         Examples of enquiries that had not been answered were discussed.

Russell O’Keefe informed the Conference that the time taken to respond to an enquiry depended on the type of enquiry, however within five working days was anticipated. Once a call was taken and logged, it was passed on to the service level where an officer would resolve. Russell O’Keefe explained that if a query could not be answered quickly he would expect a response of an estimate of time and some feedback be sent to the customer to keep them informed.  Russell O’Keefe also explained he would ask for the Council’s customer service standards to be circulated with the minutes and suggested inviting clerks to the borough to see the customer service centre and how it works.

Russell O’Keefe informed the Conference that a new model was being put into place where many queries could be answered through the libraries.

A senior management chart was handed out to all at the Conference and a more up to date version would be emailed. Russell O’Keefe informed the Conference that the new Monitoring Officer was Mary Kilner and the Managing Director, Alison Alexander was the Returning Officer and the Electoral Registration Officer as of Monday 27^th February 2017. Mary Kilner would attend the next conference.

Councillor Ken Elvin, Bray Parish Council, was concerned about the poor communication between Parish Councils and RBWM. Councillor Elvin and another Parish Councillor had emailed examples of failed communications to Russell O’Keefe after the last Conference, awaiting solutions but they were not answered. Russell O’Keefe explained that he had followed those up and he understood that responses had been sent.

A couple of suggestions by parishes that could be used were:

• Acknowledge receipt of correspondence within an agreed period (say a week) and give a contact name.

• If a topic has not been resolved and an answer given inside a month a reason should be given in writing.

This way parish councils or residents would at least know that their concern had not been forgotten and they would have someone to contact if they needed more information.

Councillor Saunders addressed the Conference and said that Cookham Parish Council had only ever had two times not managed to contact the council. Councillor Saunders suggested using the worked examples where issues had been resolved to make other areas better. The tracking of an issue was very important as well as keeping the customer informed of the progress.

The Chairman summed up and once again reiterated that acknowledgement and communication was very important. The new way forward would be tried and tested and this item would be on the Agenda again at the next Conference.

ACTION: Item on next Agenda