Wychavon accused of taking easy route

Liberal Democrat councillor Charles Tucker said hundreds of letters and calls protesting about the end of travel and car park tokens for the over-60s had not been logged as official complaints.

He said at an overview and scrutiny committee meeting on Tuesday, he was told the council received more complaints about tokens than anything else in recent years but they did not appear in the council's quarterly report on complaints because it did not consider them to be official complaints.

Coun Tucker said: "It's mind-boggling. In the fantasy world of Wychavon, a complaint is not a complaint if it is about council policy.

"The Tories dismiss the elderly who complain in person as 'Rent a Mob' and they dismiss their written complaints by saying they are not complaints. How can they be surprised if we call them complacent when they refuse to see what is staring them in the face."

Council leader Martin Jennings said there was no log of how many different comments had been given because of the variety of ways in which people could get in touch with the council.

But he said he had replied personally to many people who had given their views and they appreciated that the council had taken the time to reply.

"The Liberal Democrats are jumping around as they always do," he said. "People will react when they have had a concession in the past and if it disappears they are going to want to raise their comments. We know full well that it is a good democracy when people do have their say."

He added that many letters from the same ward had been dictated and read exactly the same so it was like having a petition sent to the council, which he described as meaningless if an action has already been taken by the council.

Mr Jennings added that since the changes to travel and parking passes the council has been concentrating on rural transport issues and will be introducing new proposals in the near future.