Complaints to the Council
1. They should encourage complaints and suggestions so that they can learn from them and improve services.
2. They should define a complaint as "an expression of dissatisfaction with the Council, its service or its staff"
3. If you are not satisfied with the service that you have received, tell the Council. They should provide a prompt response to any complaint and, if the complaint is justified, put the matter right as soon as possible.
Level One
4. Firstly, you should take the problem up with the department that provides the service.
5. Any problems should be satisfactorily addressed at this level, and where appropriate put right.
Where the problem cannot be addressed to your satisfaction, you can then take your complaint to the next level.
Level Two
6. If you are not happy with the services Wiltshire County Council provides, you can complain to them. They say that they will listen to you and do their best to put things right. They have a complaint procedure which they follow, which can be viewed at the Wiltshire County Council web-site.
If you are not satisfied with the response and wish to take the matter further, you can either:
a) Phone the Council to complain
b) Write to the council department head or officer you wish to contact.
You can make your complaint in a number of ways. If you know which department you want to complain about, you can ring the department's complaints officer. The telephone numbers for each department's complaints officer are:
Adult & Community Services (DACS) 01225 713953
Children & Education 01225 773500
Libraries and Heritage 01225 713132
Environmental Services 01225 713350
Passenger Transport 0800 9159910
c) Fax the the council department head or officer you wish to contact
d) E-Mail the council department head or officer you wish to contact. There is an online e-mail complaints form at the County Council Web-site.
7. If you have written to the council they should acknowledge receiving your complaint within three working days. Unless otherwise agreed, they should give a full written response to all complaints within ten working days. If they have to take longer, they should write and explain why and will inform you when you can expect the full response.
8. Normally a complaint at this level will be passed to the respective Director for investigation and reply. Complaints relating to Directors will be investigated and replied to by the Chief Executive.
9. Where a complaint is against the Chief Executive, depending on the circumstances and seriousness of the complaint, the Chair of Council will appoint a suitable independent third party to investigate and report.
11. Many Councils have a Complaints Officer who would notify the relevant ward councillor(s) of any complaint from within their ward at the time when it is received and will also ensure that they are sent a copy of the full written response.
Investigation by the Ombudsman is known as Level Three.
13. A Complaints Officer should record and monitor the progress of all complaints received at this level, to ensure that responses comply with the timescales in paragraph 7 above.
Copies of all correspondence relating to your complaint, including the final response, should be be passed to the Complaints Officer for filing and analysis.
14. The Complaints Officer should prepare an analysis of complaints received by number, cause, length of time taken to investigate and reply, and outcome, and this should ideally be circulated to councillors.
If you are unhappy with the response to your complaint that you get from either the Director or Chief Executive then you can take your complaint to the Local Government Ombudsman.
Please go to the Ombudsman's website - www.lgo.org.uk where you can get information on how to complain PDFLink.
Bias means that:
- vital information is missing;
- people are unable to answer questions in ways they may want to; and,
- the impression is given that aviation growth is wholly good economically and that its damaging economic, social and environmental effects are less than they in fact are.
How to complain to the Local Government Ombudsman - PDF File for Download
See:
http://www.lgo.org.uk/pdf/howcompcouncil.pdf
Copyright, 2003. Swindon Plane Campaign.