Issue - meetings

This report seeks to inform Members of customer opinion on the level of service provided by the partnership. 

Discussion:

This report advised Members of the outcome of a customer survey undertaken on the service provided by the partnership. 

The survey had been conducted over a one-week period in June 2011 via telephone, direct mailing and also in the partnership’s reception. It was noted that there had been a 45% response rate with respondents covering all three authority areas within the partnership.

A copy of the findings was attached to the report and the Head of Administration and Business Development gave details of the findings and areas for improvement. This included:

·              The importance attributed by all client groups to processes involved with communication and the speed of delivering the service.

·              The finding that consistency of interpretation, in both plan checking and site inspection, had scored highly amongst the professional groups.

·              The wish to improve the service for customers by engaging with property owners to explain the building control process and the responsibility for functions. This would seek to address any issues around owners not being kept informed by their architects or agents.

·              The high scores achieved in relation to both communication and the knowledge of officers in delivering a responsive and efficient service.

·              The finding that all groups considered the tracking of applications online as important and both owners and solicitors regarded the ability to search the history of properties as essential. The implications of this would need to be considered when the IT Strategy was presented to the Joint Committee.

·              The equality and diversity information that had been sought to evaluate whether the partnership was providing fair access to services.

Members discussed the findings as set out in the report. They considered how respondents had heard of the service, the opportunity for further improvement through the development of technical guidance sheets and the importance of providing clarity on the role of the building control service. The pragmatic approach adopted when responding to client issues was also discussed and Members expressed their concern as to the appropriateness of the questions included within the equality and diversity form, which had been provided by Medway Council.

Decision:

The Joint Committee noted the contents of the report.