Education, social care and housing dominated complaints to the local government ombudsman about Brighton and Hove City Council in the past year.
They made up 85 – or almost two thirds – of the 134 complaints to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.
There were 29 complaints about adult care services, 29 about housing and 27 about education and children’s services.
Other issues came up relating to environmental services (15 complaints), planning and development (10), highways and transport (10) and benefits and tax (8).
The ombudsman Michael King said in a letter to council chief executive Geoff Raw that 24 complaints were the subject of detailed investigations in the year to the end of March.
Of those 24, the ombudsman upheld 16 – or two thirds – of them, with 36 other cases referred back to the council for local resolution.
A further 45 complaints were closed after initial inquiries while advice was given in two cases and eight complaints were either incomplete or invalid.
In the previous year the council was the subject of 123 complaints to the ombudsman, with 28 of them – the highest number – being about education and children’s services.
The other key areas of complaint were adult care services, with 27 complaints, and planning and development with 21.
Out of 54 detailed investigations, the ombudsman upheld 21 complaints – or 39 per cent.
The ombudsman is aimed at helping people to have complaints about councils resolved swiftly while trying to improve the way that public services are provided.
