Let Us Know
Let us know what you
think
How can you get in
touch?
Do you want to make a
suggestion?
What do we ask of you?
What can you expect from
us?
What isn't a
complaint?
Complaints about behaviour of
Elected Members
Dealing with unreasonably
persistent complainants
Still not satisfied following a
complaint?
Let us know what you think
We want to hear from you if you've got a comment to make,
whether it's good or bad on any of our services. We also want
to hear your suggestions about how we can improve our
services. By asking for your feedback, we can make any
changes if we need to and make sure your contact with Wyre Forest
District Council is a positive one.
How can you get in touch?
You can speak to our Customer Service Team who are happy to talk
to you about any aspect of our services. You can contact us
as follows:
Do you want to make a suggestion?
We welcome your feedback and encourage your comments or
suggestions about any of our services. It may be that your
suggestion helps to change the way a service is delivered.
Send your Comment
Have we got it right?
If you think we've done something well, we'd love to hear from
you. We want to learn from your feedback and use it to help
us make improvements to our services. We will pass on all
compliments to the service or member of staff concerned.
Send your Compliment
Do you feel we have got it wrong?
We want to hear from you if you think we have:
- Done something wrong or badly
- Not done something we should have
- Treated you unfairly or unprofessionally
- Been too slow to act
Send your Complaint
What do we ask of you?
If you make a complaint or pay us a compliment please give us as
much detail as possible about the service including dates, times
and names of the people you dealt with if known. If making a
complaint, please also let us know what you would like us to do to
put things right.
If you are making a complaint for someone else, you will need
their permission first. Please include your name, address and
contact details as we cannot deal with any anonymous
complaints.
What can you expect from
us?
We want to settle all complaints quickly. If you have
contacted us with a complaint, there are three stages to our
process.
Stage One – quick resolution
Please make your complaint to the person dealing with the query
or one of our Customer Service Advisors. Many issues can be
resolved with an explanation, action or apology.
If you aren't satisfied, you can ask for your complaint to be
escalated to the second stage.
Stage Two – full investigation
We will acknowledge stage two complaints within 3 working
days.
Your complaint will be monitored by our Customer Service Manager
who will ensure the matter is fully investigated by the appropriate
Director.
You will get a full reply within ten working days.
If you are not happy with the result of the investigation, you
can ask for your complaint to be progressed to the third stage.
Stage Three - review
Our Chief Executive will review the full details of your
complaint.
You will get a full response explaining the outcome within ten
working days.
Every effort is made to keep within the above timescales but in
the event of more complex enquiries, this might not be
possible. If more time is needed before replying, you will be
kept informed of the delay
What isn't a complaint?
Not all issues can be dealt with under this process such as
complaints about:
| Councillors |
Complaints regarding elected Members are dealt with by our
Monitoring Officer who will investigate allegations of
misconduct. See complaints about
Elected Members of the Council |
| Complaints about other people |
Complaints about others such as noise nuisance will be dealt
with as a
request for service. |
| Criminal matters |
Matters of a criminal nature will be forwarded to the
police. |
| Employment issues |
These are dealt with in accordance with our Personnel
Handbook. |
| Staff misconduct |
Complaints concerning members of staff will be dealt with
through our disciplinary procedure, the outcome of which will
remain confidential. |
| Partner organisations |
We will forward any complaints regarding our partners or their
services to the appropriate manager. |
| Council policy |
Customer feedback regarding Council policy is recorded and
reported to the Corporate Management Team and Cabinet monthly. |
| Council decisions |
Complaints about certain decisions may be made and while they
will be explained, they won't be investigated under our complaints
procedure. |
The Council has a number of separate appeal or statutory
procedures for some of the services it provides such as:
- Planning application and enforcement decisions
- Environmental complaints
- Car park fine appeals
- Housing and Council Tax Benefit
decisions
- Statutory notice decisions
This list is not exhaustive and if your complaint falls under
one of these separate appeals processes, you will be given advice
how to make your appeal.
Anonymous Complaints
We will treat all feedback confidentially. If complaints
are received anonymously, we will not investigate them under this
procedure.
Download a
copy of our full policy 
(111K)
Complaints about the behaviour of Elected Members
If you have a complaint about the
behaviour of an Elected Member of the Council, you may be able
to report them to the Council's standards committee.
You can read the Standards Board Guide on the Code of Conduct
here:
http://www.standardsforengland.gov.uk/Guidance/TheCodeofConduct/
Dealing with unreasonably persistent
complainants
In a small minority of cases, customers persist unreasonably
with their complaints or complain just to try to make life
difficult for the Council instead of genuinely trying to sort out a
problem.
If these vexatious or unreasonably persistent complaints affect
our ability to do our work or provide a service to others, we will
apply our policy for dealing with such cases.
Read our
Policy for Unreasonably Persistent Complainants (79K)
Still not satisfied following a
complaint?
If you have followed this procedure but still think you've not
been treated fairly, you can contact the Local Government
Ombudsman. This service is not run by us and is free of
charge.
The Ombudsman is there to deal with the way in which a decision
is made, not with the merits of our decision:
Local Government Ombudsman
PO Box 4771
Coventry
CV4 0EH
email: advice@lgo.org.uk
phone: 0845 602 1983 or 024 7682 1960
(please note that calls may be recorded for training and quality
purposes).
The service is available from 8.30am to 5.00pm, Monday to
Friday
You can contact the Ombudsman at any time, but you should give
us the chance to look into the matter first by going through our
own complaints system.
Visit the Local Government
Ombudsman’s website
The Local Government Ombudsman cannot deal with complaints about
Housing Associations - these are dealt with by the Housing Ombudsman Service.
