Make a compliment, comment or complaint

We are committed to providing high quality services at all times. Our staff and partners work hard to get things right, but sometimes things do go wrong. If you are not happy with the level of service you have received we'd like to hear from you so that we can take action to make any necessary changes to improve the service. Similarly, if you let us know what we are doing well, we can use that information to help plan for the future.

Compliments, comments and feedback

It is always great to receive positive feedback. You can make a compliment, comment or give feedback about an overall service, department or individual member of staff.

Please use our contact us form and select the appropriate service area from the dropdown.

Complaints

If you are not happy with the level of service you have received, you can make an official complaint. Generally speaking, a complaint has to be made within 12 months from the date on which the matter occurred, or the matter came to the notice of the complainant.

Please check which of the following best suits your needs:

  • Service request If you wish to report a fault about a council service directly to the team concerned (for example, your bin was not collected or you want to appeal a parking ticket) this is a service request. Please use our contact us form or find the online process or contact information below or in the relevant section of this website
  • A formal complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction about the standard of service, actions or lack of action by the council, our staff or contractors. If your issue has not been resolved by the service request, please use the online formal complaints form or download and complete a formal complaints form. You can also use our Easy read - Complaints form.
    Our formal complaints process sets out how we deal with your complaint

Service areas complaints processes

Process for formal complaints

You can find full information on how we deal with all formal complaints and requests for information held by the council in our corporate complaints policy.

We will:

  • Acknowledge your complaint, normally within five working days
  • Provide you with a date for a full detailed response
  • Investigate your complaint
  • Make every effort to resolve your complaint and ensure that it is investigated fully and fairly
  • Deal with you in resolving your complaint with dignity and respect

If you are still unhappy you can take your complaint further by contacting the Ombudsman Service or call 024 7682 0000. You can contact the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman at any point, however, they will not usually deal with a complaint until the local complaints procedure has been completed.

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman publishes decision notices regarding the complaints they receive. To see the decision notices relating to Herefordshire Council, go the Ombudsman website and enter "Herefordshire Council" as the organisation name.

Privacy notice for complaints handling

Councillors' conduct

To make a complaint about an elected councillor visit Code of conduct complaints.

Unreasonable behaviour policy

We expect all council employees to deal with members of the public with dignity and respect at all times. This is embedded in the council's THRIVE values, behaviour policy and code of conduct. We also expect all members of the public to behave in a reasonable manner when dealing with officers of the council.

Our unreasonable behaviour policy sets out clearly what behaviours are deemed as unreasonable and unacceptable, and what the council will do if members of the public do not behave in an appropriate way.