Page last updated at 13:31 GMT, Wednesday, April 14 2010
Compliments, Complaints & Comments
Customer Feedback
The Council is always
keen to receive feedback from customers, and views this as a key
way of helping to improve its services. If you have thoughts about
the service you receive from the Council, compliments as well as
ways you think we could improve services, we would be glad to hear
from you.
You can choose to receive a response if you require or can remain
anonymous.
Eastleigh Direct enables you to submit an enquiry about council
services by email, it will be forwarded to the correct person and
ensure your enquiry is dealt with. This facility is also available
on the phone (023 8068 8068), or by text.
Complaints
Why Complain?
We are committed to dealing
with all complaints fairly and impartially. We welcome complaints
as an opportunity to learn and to improve our service.
What is a Complaint?
A complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction about an action or
lack of action, or about the standard of a service. It is not
a request for initial action or information, for example, to report
a missed refuse collection (although if we fail to collect the
refuse after it has been reported to us, then that could
legitimately lead to a complaint from you).
Exemptions
Our complaints procedure is
designed to be as comprehensive as possible, but it is recognised
that certain types of complaint are not intended to be dealt with
by this method and are more appropriately dealt with through other
channels.
Our complaints procedure is not an appropriate means of pursuing
–
- Dissatisfaction with politically-determined policy (as opposed
to the way in which the policy has been implemented by our
Officers)
- The conduct of Councillors (which is dealt with by the
Council’s Standards Committee)
- Matters which are subject to litigation and/or have already
been before a court or tribunal
- Matters for which statutory appeal bodies or tribunals have
been established
- Matters where the customer is seeking compensation from the
Council
Our Complaints Procedure
We operate a
3-level complaints procedure to make it easier for you to let us
know your concerns.
This procedure will help to ensure that your complaint is fully
investigated and is dealt with as fairly and as quickly as
possible. It will also help us to take the right action to
improve our services.
Where the Council has a specific review process (for example,
with housing applications and benefit claims) the complaints
procedure will not normally apply until after the review process
has been completed.
Level 1 –
To begin with, please contact the appropriate Service Unit and
explain your concerns. They will do all they can to resolve
the problem straight away. You may contact them by letter,
e-mail, phone or personal visit.
If you do not know which Service Unit to contact or do not have
their direct dial number, please telephone Eastleigh Council Direct
on 023 8068 8000 and our receptionists will be happy to help.
Level 2 –
If your concern is still
unresolved and you wish to take it further, please put your
complaint in writing giving as much information as possible.
Our Customer Service Team will assign a senior manager to
investigate your complaint.
You can submit your complaint using our online complaint form,
by e-mail or you can download a complaint form and mail it to
us.
Level 3 –
The majority of complaints will be resolved by level 2, but if
you are not happy with the response you receive, please write to
the Customer Service Team (electronically, if you prefer) to
request that the matter be reviewed by a member of the Council’s
Management Team.
We will acknowledge receipt of your complaint within 3 working
days. We aim to give a full response within 15 working days,
but if the matter is likely to take longer to investigate, we will
let you know.
In exceptional circumstances, Eastleigh Borough Council may be
obliged to put into practice its policy for dealing with
unreasonably persistent complainants and/or unreasonable
complainant behaviour.
The Local Government Ombudsman
The Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) is independent of all
government departments, councils and politicians and is appointed
to investigate complaints against local authorities.
If you are not satisfied with our response to your complaint, or
we have not dealt with it in a reasonable time, you may refer your
complaint to the LGO. However, the LGO will not investigate
your complaint unless the Council has already had a reasonable
opportunity to look into it, so you must follow the steps outlined
in this guide (or to at least level 2 in exceptional circumstances)
before taking your complaint to the LGO.
The LGO has produced a booklet giving further guidance entitled
‘Complained to the council? Still not satisfied?’. It
is available from the Council, libraries; Citizens’ Advice Bureaux;
or from the LGO’s office.
- Local Government Ombudsman LGO Advice Team PO Box 4771,
Coventry CV4 0EH
- Tel: 0300 0610614
- Fax: 024 7682 0001
- E-mail: advice@lgo.org.uk
- Website: www.lgo.org.uk
- Text: ‘call back’ to 0762 480 4299
Our Contact Details
Customer Service Team,
Eastleigh Borough Council Civic Offices, Leigh Road Eastleigh
Hampshire SO50 9YN
Tel: 023 8068 8074
Fax: 023 8062 9288
E-mail: customer.service@eastleigh.gov.uk
Text Your Council
You can now use your mobile phone to text your enquiries to
Eastleigh Borough Council 24 hours a day.
The text number, 07797 877001, provides another
way for you to contact us.
You can send a message directly to the following
services, include the appropriate code at the
beginning of the message.
- Grass Cutting - gc
- Development Control/Planning - dc
- Council Tax/Benefits - rb
- Environmental Health - eh
- Housing Advice -
hs