PPlog

I have here set out the developments in my complaint to Norfolk County Council further to my posting here of June 2nd. My original questions are in red, Mr Walton’s responses to those in black, my new responses to those in blue and quotes in green. Dear Mr. Cox, Formal Complaint - Second Stage I am writing further to the letter from Victoria McNeil of 29 May, 2008 in response to yours dated 21 May, 2008. Your complaint has been referred to me by the Departmental Complaints Officer under the Council's procedure. I am sorry you are unhappy with the response you have received so far to your concerns, so I hope that by dealing with each individual query in your letter of 21 May, 2008, I can address each of your issues in turn. I have used the same numbering as your letter to respond for the sake of clarity. Hello Mr Walton. Formal Complaint - Your reply to my 2nd stage letter to NCC’s Head of Law. Let me begin by quoting my reply to a LINks member in Manchester who asked: ...

Here in Norfolk’s ‘Empty Quarter’ we’ve - at last, two months late - finally had access to information about what is happening about LINks in this county. Unsurprising I suppose, given the local authority it is! The information comes via an initial newsletter from ‘Voluntary Norfolk’ - not, you will note, Norfolk County Council. And although NCC can argue that the interim LINk is independent and once established it was their responsibility to inform the public, I still have extant a second stage complaint about their behaviour before 1st April. Essentially this is about their incompetence and disregard of members of the public without means or opportunity to get access to their paltry two centralised preparatory meetings (remember they were given £10,000 by central government to set LINks up). And, basically because I simply don’t trust the ‘business’ mindset not to wheel and deal on the margins of legitimacy, I...

In my second stage complaint (see below) one of the further questions I’d asked to David Hayman’s revelation that: “ Interim LINks support is by Voluntary Norfolk.” was: “Voluntary Norfolk?? Who, where, how was this arrived at?” Knowing an answer from NCC wouldn’t be the epitomy of swiftness I googled ‘Voluntary Norfolk.’ It turns out to be an organisation I had, until then and for some years, known (along with everyone else) as the ‘Norwich and Norfolk Voluntary Services’ - a Norwich based organisation running various voluntary services, primarily in and around Norwich - certainly not here in this area - and which just happened to be the organisation appointed to provide the Forum Support Organisation for most of the Norfolk PPI forums. Why or when it changed its name I don’t know but the change must have been roughly coincidental with the advent of LINks. But who knows whether or not that may be signif...

Further to my initial complaint to David Hayman, LINks Lead for Norfolk County Council, I received a response (after I had complained again to the NCC Head of Law about the absence of response from Mr Hayman) from him in such general terms that it told me nothing. This was wholly unsatisfactory and I have taken my complaint to the 2nd stage and I wrote the following to the NCC Head of Law on 20.05.08. I have today, had an acknowledgement of the second stage complaint and I now await their proposed action. I remind everyone reading this that the central issues are: Norfolk has a responsibility to disseminate information equally to all its citizens. It should provide equal opportunities for everyone living in the county. It has failed to do this with its preliminary arrangements for LINks. In this area of Norfolk where I live I have seen no public information whatsoever and I still don’t know what the interrim LINks arrangements are in Norfolk. All public bodies have a legal respon...