Dear Ms Oliver,
I write to confirm that your email below (and your email of 22nd March) have been brought to my attention. I note that you have requested that Mr Houston investigates your complaint further at Stage 2. I should inform you that this would be inappropriate given that I am specifically tasked with investigating complaints at Stage 2 of the corporate complaints procedure. Mr Houston has already investigated and responded to your complaint at Stage 1.
If you still wish to proceed with your complaint I would be grateful if you would let me know why you remain unhappy following the Stage 1 response? I look forward to receiving your comments within the next 10 days. I will then investigate your complaint and aim to provide you with an outcome within 20 working days.
Alternatively, if you do not wish for me to investigate your complaint you can escalate your complaint to the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO); however it is unlikely that they will investigate as your complaint has not been exhausted locally. The contact details for the LGO are as follows:
Local Government Ombudsman
PO Box 4771
Coventry
CV4 0EH
Telephone: 0845 602 1983
Text: 0762 4804323
Email: advice@lgo.org.uk
Yours sincerely,
Anwar Majothi
Corporate Complaints Manager
Stopford House
Stockport Council
SK1 3XE
Tel: 0161 474 3182
Fax: 0161 474 4006
From: Sheila Oliver [mailto:sheilaoliver@ntlworld.com]
Sent: 26 March 2012 20:27
To: Steve Houston
Cc: Anwar Majothi; MICHAEL PARNELL; Eamonn Boylan; Leader
Subject: Mr Parnell
Dear Mr Houston
Regarding the letter sent by you on 8th March 2012, I can’t request Mr Majothi carries out the stage 2 complaint process because he is up to his neck in this case. He should have realised the Council had a statutory duty to help Mr Parnell and got off his bottom and done something. He didn’t – year after year after year. He is a massive part of the problem. You will have to deal with the Stage 2 complaint.
I have heard nothing back from Mr Parnell, so the letter of authority stands until you send me written confirmation that he doesn’t want me to act for him or I hear further from him. I am happy not to act on his behalf as I have a lot on my plate, but I wonder if the two council officers you mention are the same ones who threatened to kill him, kick his f*cking head in and ram his phone so far up his backside he would be sh*tting phone parts for a week, or, indeed, the ones who attacked him. Or, I wonder if they are officers who knew all this was happening (I sent you the video evidence) and did nothing about it. I hope you don’t mind if I don’t take the word of anyone at Stockport Council. Documentary evidence is needed before I stand down.
I am taking the matter to the Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate, who have recently been very critical of the CPS. I didn’t know they existed. Mr Parnell’s case should never have been taken by them to court as they failed to prove the five statutory tests they need to establish before taking a case forward, and they took a huge number of cases forward against him.
So, no whitewashes please. Just do your job and do it properly and every step of the way I shall keep interested parties informed of your responses.
Just some points from your letter which need raising:-
1) “this letter has addressed the issues raised under Stage 1 of the Council’s corporate complaints procedure.” No, it hasn’t!
2) “I have decided not to uphold your complaint”. This is not surprising but nevertheless disappointing. You were, of course, always likely to support Mr Khan.
3) “It would be inappropriate for the Council to investigate the complaints you have raised on behalf of Mr. Parnell…..he subsequently spoke to two Council Officers to retract the consent.”
This comment is unacceptable. It is vital to know who these supposed council officers are? Please detail their names and the circumstances of this alleged encounter.
4) “As you no longer have authority to act on behalf of Mr Parnell, the Council is not obliged to investigate the issues you have raised on his behalf.” I do have authority unless you prove otherwise.
I have experience of the Council’s complaints system which is innavigable. I raised with Mr. Majothi the fact that the school which I correctly stated had a £5 million black hole in its funding, was to be put on unremediated toxic waste. I got nowhere with Mr. Majothi and I think you will realise that I am no quitter. He is impossible to deal with. There are entire websites devoted to the sheer incompetence of our Local Ombudsman and as they employ former senior council officers, their impartiality is in doubt.
5) I have repeatedly raised this matter with the former Chief Executive, the Leader, the Current Chief Executive, Khan, Webb and all the Executive Councillors. I have the email evidence. To say I have not raised this matter before is an untrue statement and I wonder why you should claim that despite a large amount of documentary evidence to the contrary. I have been branded vexatious for contacting the Council repeatedly. If the Council stopped sending innocent council taxpayers to prison and failing to investigate their valid complaints, there would need to be less contact.
6) “Mr Parnell should have complained about these issues sooner”. Mr Parnell tried and tried and tried, as can be confirmed by the local reporter. He was repeatedly arrested for trying to enter council buildings. I have had to plead with the police not to arrest him for trying to leave a council meeting early. You forget there is masses of documentary police and court evidence. Please do not insult my intelligence by making such ludicrous statements which are ill-befitting to a senior and highly paid Council officer.
Your letter is full of shoulds and mays and inappropriates and when you say it is difficult to investigate Mr Khan you mean you really don’t want to.
Please proceed with this complaint and do so in an honest and professional matter, bearing in mind the close scrutiny to which your replies and indeed the whole complaint process at Stockport Council will be put.
Yours
Sheila
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