The council has been forced to apologise for sending “rude” emails which left a resident “confused”.

Miss X, who has been anonymised by the ombudsman along with other details, complained about the council’s handling of consultation events for a proposed development of homes in Reading and criticised the council’s communication with her and handling of her complaints.

The Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) investigator has found fault with the council for its communication with Miss X but did not find any other fault.

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Reading Borough Council (RBC) has apologised to Miss X for its communication.

A spokesman said: “The council accepts the ombudsman’s findings, which were based on some internal notes being mistakenly left on an email response to the complainant’s questions.

“Some of these notes were in red ink to distinguish them from the original questions.

“We are sorry if this caused any unintended confusion or upset.

“We have previously apologised to the complainant and are happy to do so again now the ombudsman has reported the findings.

“We note the Ombudsman found no other fault with the council’s handling of the consultation events or on how the initial complaint was dealt with."

Complaining about the council’s handling of consultation events for the development, Miss X criticised:

  • The location of the events
  • The council’s communication
  • The information provided by the council leading up to and at the events
  • The council taking photographs at the third event without permission or notice.

She also said an officer showed their ID badge in a way she found aggressive during the third consultation event.

And Miss X said the council’s responses to her emails were rude and late.

It was the council’s email communication with Miss X that the ombudsman’s investigator criticised.

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The investigator criticised the council for providing responses to emails within the body of Miss X’s emails rather than creating a new email to respond to her points.

They said this meant occasionally the council left in draft responses that were meant for internal communication.

Miss X complained the use of the colour red to highlight the council’s responses was rude and the investigator said: “While I do not consider the use of the colour red to be rude, I acknowledge and accept that Miss X found this rude.”

The investigator said the council was at fault for the way it responded to emails and this caused Miss X an injustice as she was left feeling confused about the council’s responses and was left with the impression the Council

Miss X had also criticised the actions of the ward councillors in the area but the ombudsman cannot investigate such complaints as they are not within its jurisdiction.

The LGSCO investigates complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’ at councils.