Agenda and draft minutes

To approve as correct the minutes of the meeting held on 26 July 2023

(Note: If any Member wishes to propose an amendment to the minutes they should submit this in writing to committeeservices@horsham.gov.uk at least 24 hours before the meeting.  Where applicable, the audio recording of the meeting will be checked to ensure the accuracy of the proposed amendment.)

The minutes of the meeting held on 26 July were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

To receive any declarations of interest from Members of the Committee

There were no declarations of interest.

To receive any announcements from the Chairman of the Committee, the Chief Executive or the Monitoring Officer

The Chairman welcomed new Parish Council Representative David Green to the Standards Committee and looked forward to working with him in the future.

To consider the report of the Feedback Officer

The Information Governance Officer gave an overview of the complaints made against the Council to the Ombudsman in 2022/23.

10 complaints against the Council had been decided by the Ombudsman, no complaints were being upheld; eight complaints had been closed after initial enquiries; one had been referred back to the Council for local resolution; one complaint was incomplete/invalid and no complaints were not upheld.

It was noted that this was a significant decrease from the 18 complaints received and resolved during 2021/22.

Members felt the report was extremely encouraging this year with the decrease in complaints and felt lessons had been learnt and complaints to the Council successfully managed which was a credit to Officers.

It was noted that the majority of complaints listed in the report related to Planning & Development. Members felt that moving forward improved procedures could be considered to give clarity and signpost complaints to the correct planning routes.

Following the meeting, feedback and discussion will be reported to the Development Planning Team to look at current procedures with the possibility of separate letters being sent out depending on complaints. Members hoped this could significantly reduce complaints in the future.

Items not on the agenda which the Chairman of the meeting is of the opinion should be considered as urgent because of the special circumstances

There was no urgent business.