Shepway Council Fails to Respond to Emails within a Month

1.55.54pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 5th Sep 2005

"Please allow at least 10 days for the Council to respond to your enquiry, this will prevent the need for you to contact the Council again about the same matter."

Shepway Liberal Democrats have slammed response times to email enquiries made to Shepway Council. An enquiry send by email to Shepway Council send on the 3rd of August and chased on 23rd August still has had no reply (beyond an automated receipt) by the 5th of September - over a MONTH after the initial enquiry.

Recent enquiries to Shepway receive an automated receipt which states:

"Due to the implementation of the new waste collection service, we are currently receiving an extremely high volume of contacts from residents. Please be assured we have received your email and will take action to resolve your enquiry.

"Please allow at least 10 days for the Council to respond to your enquiry, this will prevent the need for you to contact the Council again about the same matter."

Season Prater, a member of Shepway Liberal Democrats and the sender of the enquiry said:

"Email is a quick and efficient way of communicating - except, it seems, to Shepway District Council. It's awful that their systems are so bad that I've waited over a month for a response to a fairly straightforward question - without being given any idea how long it will take to answer, or even an apology for the delay.

"Well-run councils have time standards in place for dealing with correspondence, and stick to them. Currently, Shepway's standard appears to be 'Sometime, maybe' and it's just not acceptable."

Have YOU tried to contact Shepway Council recently and not received a response, or had to wait a long time? If so, we'd like to hear from you - let us know your story by email to info@shepwaylibdems.org.uk