I thnk you neeed to provide more details Waheed. You say you work for a City council and that interviews have not yet taken place for a job. You then say "MY job was advertised 8 months ago ...etc.
Are you saying tha this was your actual job that you were doing, so that you are re-applyying for your own job? Or did you just mean a job for which you were applying?
I am puzzled sine if it was your own job for which you were applying and did not get it, I would expect you to be more upset, so I am not sure if I understand your full complaint, other than the length of time for them to make up their minds.
Many people would say you are lucky to have had a rejection letter, in many cases firms never tell people that they have failed - you apply and there is silence so you carry on applying for other jobs.
I once had an interview for a job for company A, and after several weeks, then had three interviews spread over several more weeks, spent a day with the department of Company B, was offered the job, handed in my month's notice to my current company, worked it, had a week off between jobs, and had worked a month of the new job, when I got a second interview offer from Company A.
There is no law that says an organisation has to conduct its interview process in a particular time scale other than common politeness. If you want to raise an issue, write and complain detailing what has happened,