COMPLAINTS about Redbridge Council have dropped in the past year, according to a local government watchdog.

The Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) has published its annual review of councils - and figures for the borough show an improvement at the authority.

Over the past year 110 enquiries and complaints about the council made it to the Local Government Ombudsman, compared to 124 enquiries outlined in the 2009 report.

Only one complaint had a report issued against it - the case of an autistic boy who the council were criticised for not providing enough support for.

The authority was fined £1,000 in August last year and Tony Redmond, of the LGO, said the family of Alex Busk had been left "significantly distressed" after the authority was unable to provide a special occupational therapist for him, despite saying it would do so.

Mary and Chris Busk, of Grove Hill, South Woodford, were originally told their son would receive regular help from a therapist specially trained in the area of "sensory integration" for children with autism, starting in October 2008.

However the help never arrived, despite the family complaining to the council.

In May 2009 a therapist was found, but only as she was about to go on an extended period of annual leave, but after a delay a new start date was given of September last year.

Mrs Busk said: "The process didn't bring us any joy.

"To be honest it was incredibly sad that it came to making a complaint to the Ombudsman and we would rather not have done it but we had to make sure our son's needs were met."

"Since November (when Alex's occupational therapy started) the therapyhas been absolutely fantastic but other issues have arisen and we have complained again."

Mrs Busk said she would prefer not to comment on the nature of the complaint but she said it centred around the same service and she expected it to go to a tribunal.

The LGO agreed nine local settlements within the past year, where, during an investigation into a complaint, the council agreed an action which the LGO deems satisfactory to the complaint.

Three of the settlements were planning and building control complaints, two of the settlements were housing complaints and one each related to benefits, public finance, transport and highways and other.

Lessons learnt from settling planning and building control complaints in the borough all relate to enforcement.

In one of the complaints the council took eight months to respond to a reported breach of planning control Mr Redmond said: "The breach itself - regarding a porch - did not have a significant effect on the complainant's amenity, but the council's failure to investigate meant that the complainant was put to some time and trouble in having to write a further letters to the council during that eight month period."

Mr Redmond said the council only acted when the LGO became involved and the authority agreed to pay the complainant £100 to recognise the time and trouble caused by the delay.

The two other planning problems were to do with the council failing to notify complainants of the outcome of planning investigations.

In both cases the council investigated alleged planning breaches and found out the two developments did not need permission. However, the council failed to notify the complainant's of the decision and agreed to send written apologies for the error.

Mr Redmond said there had been a "significant reduction" in the number of compalints about school admissions and he welcomed the authority improving the time it takes to respond to complaints.

A council spokeswoman said: “The council aims to provide a good and fair service to all residents and we believe the complaints process should be seen as a positive process and a way to improve services to local service users.

“The council is pleased to see the number of complaints reduced and always strives to provide the very best services to residents.

“The promotion of the council’s complaints process both online and in community outlets has led to service users having better access to the system and greater confidence to make a complaint."