UK: Must not complain to city officials

Dealing with complaints comes with the territory for many a council employee.

But residents in one country town have been told to stop writing to their council about its decision to reduce a speed limit - because the complaints are ‘stressing out staff’.

Ferndown Town Council, Dorset, received an influx of letters and emails after residents in the neighbouring parish of Longham felt their views had been ignored about plans to reduce the limit on a stretch of main road which runs between the two communities.

In response, the council’s traffic working party chairman Cathy Lugg, wrote to residents to explain the decision but also asked them to stop writing to the town council and instead write to her directly as the volume of letters was ‘causing extra stress for staff’.

But the response left some residents feeling even more exasperated. Mandy Willis, from Longham, said: ‘It’s just ridiculous - our council tax rates are going up and yet as residents we are being told to stop hassling the council because the staff are stressed.

‘Surely the job of the town council is to communicate with residents who are there to hold them to account for its decisions.

‘If we can’t write to the town council where are we supposed to turn to get issues in the town sorted?’

SOURCE