Introduction

The Complaint Report forms make it easier to submit photographic evidence of the problem(s) you come across on streets and wish to report, provided you are equipped with a digital camera and can download photographs into a computer.

The forms provide a standard but flexible format under the LSS logo, with a series of standard requests for responses, to which photographs and more specific questions can be linked. The photographs allow problems to be easily and precisely located and identified, where precise verbal descriptions and locations (when using telephone or email fault reporting lines such as CLARENCE for instance), are often more difficult to remember.

For a specific problem it will often be best to illustrate it with two photographs, a close up of the problem and a wider angled shot showing the location.

The format allows you to add the name of your local area and identify yourself as a member or representative of a local Living Streets group or as an individual contact for the area - Living Streets Glasgow, Living Streets Portree, or Living Streets Auchtermuchty for example.

Submitting Reports

The report forms stand alone in that they will include your address (and email address if included) and request a reply. You may nevertheless wish to send a brief covering letter requesting attention to the enclosed report. In the case of email submissions the report will be sent as an attached file with a covering email requesting attention to it.

Initial reports are usually best sent directly to the most relevant local authority official, if known; with copies sent to others that you may wish to inform, such as the local councillor. For many road maintenance issues the relevant official is likely to be the Network Manager within the Department with responsibility for roads and transport. Otherwise reports can be sent to the overall Director of the relevant Department.

It may be possible to submit the report forms through your local fault reporting system. CLARENCE in Lothian does accept email submissions and your complaint is then acknowledged. One disadvantage of this is that you don't know which official or section the complaint has been forwarded to and no further feedback is likely, so any chasing up is less direct.

Following Up

If no acknowledgement or reply is sent within the time period specified by the local authority in its customer charter, then a further complaint may be submitted about the failure to respond promptly. It is as well to check first whether the problem has been attended to though - getting the problem fixed is more important than receiving a reply.

Where the response is seen to be non existent or too slow on the ground then following up by the submission of an Update Report, with photographic evidence showing the continuing problem, may prompt action. Copies to local councillors to seek their involvement may help at this stage. What is a reasonable time period to allow before following up will depend on the nature of the problem(s) to be addressed. Hazards or obstacles requiring routine maintenance or management action should be addressed swiftly, within a few weeks if not days, but items requiring funding decisions will inevitably take longer.

A pattern of inadequate or no response to several submissions would suggest that the council has not got an effective or responsive system in place to deal with the problems identified. If such a pattern emerges you should take this up with the senior councillor or councillors with relevant executive responsibility (for roads and transport, public realm, or environmental and cleansing issues), as well as with the director of the department concerned. Submission of copies of the batch of reports including updates, is suggested, with a note requesting action to improve the responses. You may also wish to consider sending copies to the leader of the council, the chief executive of the council, and leaders of opposition parties on the council, if an inadequate pattern of response persists. There is also the option of sending reports to the local press and seeking publicity for problems.

A Living Streets Scotland website can be found at www.livingstreetsscotland.org.uk and blank LS Complaint Report forms are available on the website for downloading. You will also find some examples of the use of these complaint forms on the website.