The Local Government Ombudsman has published an annual review of complaints about Christchurch Borough Council in which he said he was not required to issue any reports against the Council during 2008/09.A total of 17 complaints and enquiries were received about the Council during the year. Two of those were treated as premature and in four other cases advice was given, usually to go direct to the Council. The remaining 11 were forwarded to the investigative team.The ombudsman decided nine cases during the year. In five of those he found no maladministration, in two cases he decided not to investigate and in one further case he took the view that the matters were outside of his jurisdiction. In the final case a local settlement was agreed between the complainant and the Council during the course of the investigation, so it did not have to proceed. Four enquiries were made to the Council during the year and the average time taken by the Council to reply was 20 days, well within the 28 days requested, something which the ombudsman felt was commendable.Michael Turvey, Chief Executive of Christchurch Council, said: “We are delighted that the ombudsman did not have to issue any reports against us last year. We take all complaints we receive seriously and try our utmost to deal with them in-house to the best of our ability.“However, we realise that there is always more that we could learn so we were pleased that some of our staff received training on effective complaint handling from members of the Ombudsman’s office last year.“If anyone is unhappy with any services they receive from the Council, we would like to hear about it so we can resolve any issues as soon as possible.”