Compliments, comments and complaints

We understand that sometimes things go wrong or that you might be unhappy about something.

If something isn’t working, needs fixing, or needs to be done, please tell us. In most cases we can quickly put things right through our normal service delivery processes.

You don’t need to raise a complaint to get it sorted — the quickest and easiest way is to use one of our online forms to tell us about things like:

• a missed bin collection
• fly-tipping (dumped rubbish), graffiti or street cleaning
• a pothole
• noise nuisance
• an abandoned vehicle
• grass cutting
• problems with Benefits or Council Tax 

Our Tell Us pages contain a full list of everything you can report using our online forms, which will immediately route your enquiry, feedback or concerns to the correct service area and help with faster resolution. Most problems are resolved this way.

Are you unhappy with a decision we've made? 

For some matters there are set appeals or review processes which you should use if you think we've got something wrong. These sit outside of the Compliments, Comments or Complaints process and include:

• Appeals regarding homelessness decisions and housing application assessments
• Parking appeals / Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) challenges
• Council Tax Support or Housing Benefit decisions
• Council Tax appeals
• Disabled Blue Badge application decisions
• School admission appeals
• School exclusion appeals
• Appeals regarding Special Educational Needs provision
• Planning decisions, including consent, refusals and enforcement decisions
• Regulatory matters, such as Alcohol licensing appeals, Street collection licences, Skip permits, or Pavement licence refusals 
• Appeals against statutory notices such as Noise abatement or Environmental Health notices
• Outcomes of Insurance claims (decisions on outcomes are made by the Council’s insurer, not the Council)

Outside scope

Certain other matters are outside of the scope of the Council’s Compliments, Comments and Complaints policy to investigate or determine. These include:

• matters of law or central Government policy, e.g. Council Tax legislation
• matters where the customer or the Council have already started legal proceedings, such as where Particulars of Claim have been filed at court
• matters where ongoing action is being taken by either the Council or another party and considering the complaint might prejudice such action
• matters which are currently subject to an appeal, or have already been subject to an appeal and decided by a court or independent tribunal
• concerns relating to policies, procedures or budgetary decisions already made by the Council, (unless you are directly impacted by them, or they raise wider public interest issues)
• complaints that have already been investigated at all stages of the Complaints policy and concluded that the Council were not at fault, or which have already been addressed by an Ombudsman ruling
• issues that occurred more than 12 months before the date of the complaint
• matters relating to requests for information under Freedom of Information (FOI), Environment Information Regulations (EIR), Environmental Impact Assessments or Data Protection legislation, including data breaches
• complaints about schools and colleges (you should contact the school directly and follow their procedure)

Formal complaints

We can only investigate complaints for issues that have already been reported to the council but haven’t been resolved.

If you have already reported an issue and given the service area a reasonable opportunity to put things right but it still hasn’t been resolved, please let us know by completing our Speak Up Compliments, Comments and Complaints form so we can investigate it.

Most complaints are dealt with under the corporate Compliments, Comments and Complaints policy, but there are some complaints that have to follow a separate process:

• Adult social care
• Children's social care services
• Councillors (elected members)