AN independent government review has criticised how quickly Rossendale Council is able to respond to queries.

The Ombudsman’s office described the council’s response times as “disappointing” and highlighted room for improvement in an official report.

The body, which investigates complaints by residents, said it made three calls to the council last year and found the average time taken to respond to the enquiries was 44 days against a target of 28 days.

It said: “This is disappointing in the context of last year’s much better performance with a larger number of enquiries where the average for a response was 22.8 days.

"One of the planning and building control complaints about which there was an enquiry took 72 days for a response.

“The planning department might wish to look at ways in which it can improve in this respect.”

The report also highlighted that 35 official complaints were made about Rossendale council and 22 of them were forwarded to the investigative team.

The majority of complaints made by members of the public were targeted at the council’s planning and building control department.

After investigation, nine complaints were pursued by the ombudsman.

Senior councillors defended the authority’s efforts to deal with complaints quickly and efficiently following publication of the report.

Coun Peter Steen, who also sits on the county council, said: “What the ombudsman report does not mention is the amount of compliments we have received as a council.

“Members of the public have praised us for various things in the last year where we as a council have exceeded expectation.

“It is a shame that these comments were overlooked.”