Essential works to the planning register
On Tuesday 22 July 2025, you will not be able to search or comment on planning applications. This is because of essential maintenance needed to the software. We apologise for any inconvenience.
Customer complaints
You can register a formal complaint to us about council services.
Before you submit a formal complaint
Contact us before you make a complaint
Many complaints can be resolved by speaking to the member of staff who dealt with you in the first place. We would encourage you to do this, as it might put matters right quickly.
If such an approach does not resolve your complaint, or if you are unhappy with our response, you can complain formally.
What counts as a complaint
We have adopted the Housing Ombudsman Service's definition of a complaint:
An expression of dissatisfaction, however made, about the standard of service, actions or lack of action by the council, its own staff, or those acting on its behalf, affecting and individual resident or group of residents.
What does not count as a complaint
A complaint is not any of the following:
- a request for service (for example, request for a housing repair or removal of fly-tipping)
- a request for information
- an explanation of council policy (for example, the level of Council Tax)
- an issue regarding anti-social behaviour
- a liability or personal injury claim
- a matter already being dealt with by the ombudsman
Who can complain
Any resident, tenant or user of services provided by us. Alternatively, you may:
- represent an organisation
- be an advocate for a service user affected by how we provided our services
Time limit
We expect complaints to be made in a timely manner. We will not consider complaints in respect of a matter that is more than 12 months old, except in exceptional circumstances.
Complaints about councillors
If you have a complaint about one of your local councillors, it will be dealt with under a separate procedure by our monitoring officer. Find out more about the councillors' code of conduct.
Complaints about housing services
The Housing Ombudsman website published its Complaint Handling Code in July 2020. The code outlines what you can and should expect from us as your council. This includes annually self-assessing our performance against the code as your landlord. We assess our complaint procedure in May each year.
If you are a tenant or leaseholder in council housing and your complaint concerns a property, we will aim to provide you with a full response at stage 1 within 10 working days of your complaint being logged.