The Council launched a new customer feedback procedure on 1 October 2005 which provides the framework and processes for us to investigate, monitor and record everything you want us to know. The procedure covers three distinct areas:
- Compliments
- Feedback and Suggestions
- Complaints
It provides an opportunity for local people to give the Council their views and opinions. A way of learning and improving our services by understanding what matters to people, and if something has gone wrong, it is our chance to try and put things right whenever possible and learn from it.
Whenever compliments are received for a service area, team, or individual they will be shared with the people concerned, and recorded in a central system. Compliments are a great morale booster and a way of endorsing a way of working or exceptional service, and should be celebrated.
Feedback and suggestions are a way for members of the public to share their views and opinions with the Council, maybe to try and influence direction or policy, provide ideas for improvements, developments or investment. When someone is unhappy about a decision or activity that has been made and implemented legally and complies with the Council's constitution, we cannot accept a complaint, but the individual can use the feedback procedure instead.
And when things unfortunately do go wrong, we have a three stage internal process to try and resolve the issue, with a final external appeal to the Local Government Ombudsman after this. In the first informal stage, the Manager of the relevant team or department will investigate the matter and respond to you directly. The second stage will be overseen by the relevant Head of Service, and the final stage will be managed by a Director with an independent person completing the investigation.
A copy of the leaflet detailing the procedure (PDF , 282KB) is available.
Please use the links to use the online service, or alternatively, download and print the relevant forms.
If you have any queries or enquiries regarding this process please contact the Customer Services Manager (details in Contact Us).
