Tuesday 11 February 2014

Making a complaint.



If you are about to embark upon dealing with Canal and River Trust and their complaints procedure. Here are a few notes and observations for guidance. Like all large institutions the Canal and River Trust has a complaints procedure. It is a formal set of rules that governs how complaints are dealt with. However, I am minded that there are no checksums or balances to ensure a fair and equitable outcome. You might find on reflection that the scales are heavily weighted in one direction.

Like most rules it is up to whoever makes the complaint to ensure that the complaint is dealt with in the appropriate time scales. The Canal and River Trust is well known for being tardy in dealing with issues. Its only fair on you and the trust if the complainant ensures that the escalation to the various levels is done in a timely way.

What is a complaint. A complain is anything that you feel aggrieved about and is within the remit of the Canal and River Trust. Most important of all it's about how you 'feel' about the issue. Keep you complaint succinct and to the point. Only cover the issue in question. The next important step is to keep a log of you communications. As well as recording the time and date, record names and print out a copy of all correspondence.

The next section has been taken from the Canal and River Trust Website. My comments on each section are contained in italics.

How do I make a complaint?

It’s always best if you can let us know straight away as most complaints can be sorted out for you quickly by a member of staff. If it’s not possible to let us know at the time you can contact us by email, in writing or by telephone when it’s more convenient.

I would suggest that where possible you use eMail to serve your complaint. Letters can get lost in the post or misplaced internally even when sent recorded or registered. It would take some time before anyone would become aware that a letter is lost or misplaced. Telephone conversations if not recorded can be summarised in a way that you later find you do not agree with. The spirit and nature of your complaint might be lost in translation. My prefered method would be to email the complaint and if an acknowledgement is not forthcoming within 24 hours. I would submit the email again and follow this up with a phone call.


Sending a direct email to a member of staff of the Canal and River Trust and not receiving a reply or even a basic acknowledgement is not unusual, in fact it seems to be quite normal. The person dealing with your email may be very busy and it could have slipped their mind. I have heard many people say things like "I have been in touch with Joe Blogs and did not get a response. The problem here it that Joe Blogs may not realise you want a response and that as far as he or she knows the email is for information only. The correct email address to submit a complaint is:- customer.feedback@canalrivertrust.org.uk The telephone number for follow up is 0303 040 4040


First Level

Initially your complaint will be investigated by one of our senior managers. They will have overall responsibility for the area of the Trust which your complaint relates to. For example, if your complaint relates to the maintenance of a section of towpath it will be investigated by the local waterway manager.


We will always acknowledge your complaint within five working days and do everything we can to resolve it within 15 working days of our acknowledgement. If, for some reason, this is not possible we will explain why and let you know when you can expect to receive a response.

From the above, you will note that there are two time scales published. Five days to acknowledge receipt of your complaint. That is a reasonable time frame when dealing with a complaint in writing. However, electronic mail should be almost instantaneous. A telephone call would be an instant acknowledgement in its own right.

The fifteen days to resolution is in the real world a best case scenario. Therefore the fifteen days should be the trigger point to consider moving the complaint to stage two. The longer any complaint is allowed to drag on the more ill feeling will fester. A speedy resolution is in the best interests of everyone.


Second Level

If we are unable to resolve your complaint you can ask us to review it at the second level. At this stage a senior manager or director without responsibility for the area of your complaint will investigate your concerns. This ensures that we take a fresh look at matters.

This is an issue that causes concern for people pursuing a complaint against the Trust. Is the employee of the trust who is chosen to deal with the issue going to be truly independent. Is one manager going to override the decisions of another manager. Many people will be understandably sceptical of this part of the resolution to an issue. As a complainant we have no knowledge of friendships and affiliations between trust employees. Could an employee be worried about their actions being a bar on future career progression. Is it actually fair on both the complainant and the employee.


You can ask us to do this for you by email or in writing to Kelly Radley, Internal Communications & Customer Services Manager, at our head office.

Again, we will acknowledge your complaint within five working days and do everything we can to resolve it within 15 working days of our acknowledgement. If, for some reason, this is not possible we will explain why and let you know when you can expect to receive a response.

From the above, you will note that once again there are two time scales published. Five days to acknowledge receipt of your complaint. That is a reasonable time frame when dealing with a complaint in writing. However, electronic mail should be almost instantaneous. A telephone call is not an option in stage two in this instance.


The fifteen days to resolution is in the real issue. Therefore the fifteen days should be the trigger point to consider moving the complaint to stage three. A speedy resolution is in the best interests of everyone.





Waterways Ombudsman
It might be that you still feel we have not fully resolved your complaint after receiving both first and second level responses. If this is the case then you can ask the Waterways Ombudsman to consider your complaint.
The Waterways Ombudsman is entirely impartial and independent and can consider complaints about injustice caused to you by maladministration or unfairness by the Trust or its subsidiaries (including BWML – British Waterways Marinas Limited). More information and details on how to contact the Waterways Ombudsman can be found on this website.

First of all, lets be absolutely clear, the Ombudsman is not your friend and neither should you ever for a moment consider that the Ombudsman will champion your cause. You should before referring an issue to the Ombudsman not have any expectation that a fair and equitable outcome will be found. The Ombudsman does not seek, gather or weigh any evidence or put any store in independent corroboration of the issue being complained about. 
In some recent correspondence on a complaint that I have been privy to. The ombudsman clearly states that he works on intuition. Wiki defines intuition as: "Acquiring beliefs in ways that bypass ordinary justification." In other words guess work, so you might just as well spin a coin to get an outcome.When the complainant realised how the complaint was being handled by the Ombudsman. The complainant withdrew the application. The complainant then sought to resolve the issue by other means. The complainant was successful and the matter was resolved. Had the issue been left with the Ombudsman or in the Canal and River Trust complaints system. Justice would not have been served.

This then begs the question is the Canal and River Trust complaints procedure fit for purpose. I would suggest that whilst there is no truly independent and conducted without fear or favour element in the investigation of complaints. Then the process will continue to be flawed. Whilst there is no truly independent investigation of issues the system will remain flawed. Essentially CaRT remains as master, judge and jury in many instances.

Whilst I was preparing the script, I was asked by a friend who picked up the bills for the running of the Waterways Ombudsman. I said that had no idea. He pointed me to a document on the Ombudsman web site.


British Waterways shall pay all proper costs of the Scheme, including the Waterways Ombudsman’s fees (or other remuneration) and expenses; all costs of publicising the Scheme; and all reasonable expenses and costs of the Committee.

My friend then made a wonderful and very entertaining remark. He said "Remember whoever pays for the meal always gets to choose the wine." A very sage observation.

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