Making complaints about the Council
- What can I do if I don’t agree with the council’s actions?
- Complaint and Comment Procedure
- Complaints about councillors
- On-line complaint form
- On-line comment/suggetion form
- Other way to complain
- Local Government Ombudsman (External link)
What can I do if I don't agree with the council's actions
Although the Council always tries to respond to the wishes and aspirations of the public, because of the scope and variety of services provided it is difficult to succeed every time. This may be because the views of a member of the public and the Council differ because the Council is compelled by legislation to act in a certain way, or its view of the wider public interest differs from a resident's personal considerations.
There will also be occasions when the Council gets it ‘wrong’. In which case a review will be carried out in an open and honest way because the Council cares about providing high quality services and wishes to improve these and respond positively to community concerns.
To ensure that all complaints and suggestions are captured and properly considered the Council has established a process for dealing with them. This document explains this process. It is intended: -
- to enable you to know how to complain or comment and to understand the way in which these will be handled
- to enable staff to be confident about what to do when they receive a complaint or comment
- to ensure that everyone is treated fairly
- to enable the Council to learn and to see how services can be improved
Complaint and comment procedure
What is a complaint?
A complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction about the Council's action or lack of action or about the standard of a service provided by the Council or on its behalf.
What is not a complaint?
The following are examples of things the Council will not deal with as complaints:-
- Reports of a single breach of a service standard, e.g. one missed refuse or recycling collection.
- Unfavourable comments where the person does not wish to take the matter further.
- "Statutory"representations in connection with planning or licensing applications, local development schemes and documents or formal consultation exercises.
- Concerns regarding matters which are the responsibility of another body, e.g. highways, social services, education and trading standards (Wiltshire County Council), health matters (NHS or a Primary Care Trust), water supply or sewage disposal ( Wessex or Thames Water)
- The supply of information concerning breaches of regulatory control, e.g. unauthorised building/development works, fly tipping or noise nuisance.
- Where there is already a procedure for dealing with a certain type of complaint set out in law. (For example, some housing related complaints have their own procedures which have to be followed)
- Requests for services, an explanation of decisions taken or for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 or the 1998 Data Protection Act.
Complaint handling
It is always nice to hear praise for our services and individual staff members and we try extremely hard to maintain a high level of service. Things can go wrong however, and as part of our efforts to prevent such occurrences we want to hear about them so we can act upon them. To ensure that all complaints are handled in a similar manner, the Council has a complaint procedure which ensures that if you complain we will try to deal with your complaint quickly, consistently and helpfully.
Kennet’s procedure is based on two stages: -
- In the first instance you should lodge your complaint with the Council’s Customer Services team which will register and record the case. The team will then forward the complaint to the relevant Service Manager for investigation and reply.
- If you are unhappy with the response you receive from the Service Manager you should contact the Director of Community Services or the Director of Resources, the Director of Environment and Leisure Services or the Chief Executive who will then take an independent look at your complaint
Suggestions/Comments
Suggestions and comments on ways to improve existing services, or perhaps about services the Council could provide are very much welcomed and valued. Alternatively, you may have views about services you think the Council should no longer provide! Whatever your views they will be recorded and passed to the relevant service manager or director with responsibility for that area of work. If your comments are aimed at elected members, they will be recorded in a similar manner and passed to the relevant committee chairman or leader of the Council.
If you request a response this will be provided, otherwise the changes to services the Council makes in direct response to public comment will be set out periodically in the Council’s newspaper or on this web site.
Racial Equality Policies
If your complaint concerns racial equality the council has formally adopted a corporate policy on racial equality, a copy of which can be sent on request.
How to make your views known
The simplest way to record your views and send them to the Council is by completing either the ‘Complaint’ or ‘Suggestion’ form on this web site. (Please remember that single breaches of a service standard, such as a missed refuse collection, grass cutting or street cleaning are usually best remedied by a telephone call to the Council)
Alternatively, if you wish to send a letter, e-mail or telephone the relevant contact details are set out below: -
Customer
Services
Kennet District Council,
Browfort,
Bath
Rd ,
Devizes,
Wilts SN10 2AT
E-mail:
- Kennet@Kennet.gov.uk
Fax: - (01380) 729146
Tel: - (01380) 724911
If you do wish to put your views in writing, but for whatever reason have difficulty in doing so, one of the Council’s Customer Services staff will be pleased to help you.
The Council can provide an interpreter service covering many languages if you have difficulty in speaking or writing English. If this is the case, again one of the Council’s Customer Services staff will be pleased to try and help you.
To make an on-line complaint or comment please follow one of the links below:
Complaints about councillors
The District, Parish & Town Councils within the district of Kennet have a Code of Conduct which sets out how Councillors should behave. Kennet District Council’s code of conduct can be obtained from the council.
The behaviour covered by the Code of Conduct is set out below: -
- unlawfully discriminating against someone
- failing to treat people with respect
- doing something to prevent those who work for the authority from being impartial
- revealing information that was given to them in confidence, or stopping someone from getting information they are entitled to by law
- damaging the reputation of their office or authority
- using their position as a councillor to seek an advantage or disadvantage either for themselves or others
- misusing their authority's resources
- allowing their authority's resources to be used for Political Party activities
- failing to register financial or other interests
- failing to reveal a personal interest at a meeting;
- taking part in a meeting or making a decision where they have an interest that is so significant that it is likely to affect their judgement (known as a prejudicial interest)
- failing to withdraw from the room whenever the councillor realises he/she has a ‘prejudicial interest’
- improperly to influence a decision where the councillor has a prejudicial interest
- failing to register any gifts or hospitality that they have received in their role as a councillor worth over £25
If you want to complain about the conduct of a member of Kennet District Council, please use the complaint form and return.
Follow to download our Complaint Forms - Members Code of Conduct
Please return to The Monitoring Office, Kennet District Council, Browfort, Bath Road, Devizes, Wiltshire SN10 2AT
Other ways to complain:
If, having used the Council’s complaint procedure you remain dissatisfied with the action taken to deal with your complaint there are other steps which can be considered.
If you are unhappy with the response you receive from a Director or the Chief Executive and believe the Council has failed to follow the correct procedures, you may then wish to consider pursuing the matter further by contacting the Local Government Ombudsman. (External link)
The Ombudsman provides an independent review of the way in which councils deal with their business and an explanatory leaflet is available from the Council. The Council must reach its decisions and implement them in a fair and reasonable way. The Ombudsman’s role is to ensure this has happened, not to review the decision itself. However, direct contact with the Council should always be the first step as the Ombudsman will expect you to have given the Council an opportunity to resolve any problem before looking into a case.
If your complaint concerns financial or other irregularities, the matter can be referred to the District Auditor whose address can be provided by the Council. However, very often the Council’s Director of Resources will be able to assist and explain or use the Council’s Internal Audit function to investigate.
If your complaint concerns the legality of an action, you can refer the matter to the Council’s Monitoring Officer who is the Solicitor to the Council.
You may seek your own independent legal advice or advice from the Citizens Advice Bureau, http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/index/getadvice.htm (External link)) or refer the case to the local Member of Parliament.