Complaints

We want you to get in touch when things go wrong. We need to know so we can put them right and learn from our mistakes.

For example:

  • there has been a delay in providing a service
  • you’re not happy with how you have been treated
  • we have not followed our processes or policies
  • we have not met our legal, statutory or regulatory requirements

 

Can we resolve the problem for you?

The quickest way to resolve an issue is to report it directly to the service involved.

 

Make a complaint

If you have contacted the council about an issue and you're not happy with the way it was handled, you can make a formal complaint. 

Before you make a complaint 

Some services have a separate complaints process. If your complaint is to do with the following, you should use the relevant complaints process below. 

 

Make a complaint

How we’ll handle your complaint

When a complaint is made, we’ll acknowledge this within five working days. 

We’ll record the information you have provided and use the feedback to help improve our services.

Stage one

When you make a complaint, we’ll pass your complaint to the relevant service who will investigate this. 

We’ll respond to you within 10 working days. If we need more time to respond we’ll contact you.

When we respond, we’ll tell you:

  • what we have found
  • explain any changes we make
  • apologise if we have got it wrong and try to put this right

If you’re not satisfied with the response you received at stage one you can ask for your complaint to be escalated to stage two of our complaints process.

You’ll need to do this within 30 working days of your stage one response.

Stage two

During this stage an investigating officer will review your complaint and, if necessary, carry out an independent review.

We’ll respond to you within 20 working days. If we need more time to respond we’ll contact you.

We’ll make a decision based on:

  • what you’re unhappy about with the stage one response
  • information you provide that will help us to make a decision
  • whether we’ll be able to achieve the result you want

You can also view our customer complaint and resolution policy and find an Easy Read version of our complaints policy (PDF 886KB). 

For information on how we process your data, please read our complaints privacy notice.

 

Taking your complaint further

If you’re still not satisfied with our response, you can contact an ombudsman who investigates complaints about local councils. These services are independent, impartial and free.

The ombudsman will usually only consider your complaint after you have completed all stages of our complaints process and have given us the opportunity to resolve matters for you.

 

Complaints about councillors

You should use the form below for complaints which involve a breach of the Code of Conduct for Members who are acting in their official capacity as Members.

If you want to make a complaint about a MP, you should contact the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards.

 

Complaints data

Read the:

Each year we undertake a self-assessment against the Housing Ombudsman complaint handling code.

View the most recent housing complaint handling code self-assessment (PDF 261KB).

You can read details regarding the Housing Ombudsman Complaint Handling Code on the Housing Ombudsman Service website.

You can read details regarding the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman's Complaint Handing Code on the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman website