Making a complaint
You can make a complaint online or you can telephone, email or write to customer relations.
If you are unhappy and wish to make a complaint, the people who can best deal with this are those who provide the service. If we cannot put things right quickly and simply, we will log your complaint in line with our complaint process:
Stage 1 – investigation
A senior officer from the service area your complaint relates to will investigate your complaint.
They will aim to reply to you in full within 10 working days. Sometimes they might need longer to make sure that your complaint is fully resolved. If it will take longer than 10 working days to reply, we will contact you to let you know.
Stage 2 - internal review
If you are not satisfied that the council’s reply to your stage 1 complaint resolves your issues, please contact customer relations to ask for a review.
Please ask for a review within one month of our reply (for example, if our reply is sent on 28 March then you should appeal by 28 April). We will not usually investigate appeals received outside this timescale.
- Be as specific as you can about what remains unresolved from your original complaint and how you would like us to resolve it
- We cannot effectively review complaints without knowing what you believe is unresolved
The director for the service area your complaint relates to will review your original complaint and the stage 1 reply. The director will respond to you within 15 working days. If it will take longer than 15 working days to reply, we will contact you to let you know.
If you complain about new issues which were not in your original complaint, we will investigate these as a new stage 1 complaint.
If you prefer, customer relations can help you through the process.
At any time, you can contact your local councillor.
Ombudsman
If you are not satisfied that the council’s reply to your stage 2 internal review resolves your issues, you can contact the Ombudsman:
Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman
PO BOX 4771
Coventry CV4 0EH
tel: 0300 061 0614
The Ombudsman will not usually investigate your complaint until you have completed the council's complaints process.
More information
Further information about what we do with your feedback, the sorts of complaints we will or will not investigate, who will investigate your complaint and how, can be found in our policy documents:
Data sharing
To investigate properly, we might need to share your complaint, including your contact details, with one of our partner organisations. Please read our privacy statement.
Useful contacts
Contact customer relations.