It is a common belief that the LGO is biased in Councils’ favour. They can be worse than that. I made a complaint to the LGO. They declined to accept it. They can do that but are obliged to give a reason. They failed to give a reason. A Freedom of Information Request revealed what had passed within the system. They were well aware what they had done. When I complained about that, the matter was covered up.
The LGO is an organisation that protects its officers and itself at the expense of the public interest and its own rules and is as rotten as some of the councils it investigates. As the council in this case was Ealing, that is as rotten as rotten gets.
Ealing Council’s Complaints procedure, as I am sure Mr Taylor must have found, is one in which a formula of corruption has become institutionalised by its repetition by a succession of senior officers. The new leader, Mason, is sitting on formal complaints against for four senior officers. This is the man who promised us transparency in his engagement with the public. |