Contact Us
Making a Complaint
If you want to make a complaint, please read the following information and
use our online complaints form, or contact us using
one of the alternative ways explained below.
Our commitment
Putting customers first
Bexley Council's commitment to putting
customers first,
means providing high quality services to all our customers. If things do go wrong, however, we
want to know, so we can put them right straight away.
We guarantee to:
- Take complaints seriously
- Investigate complaints thoroughly and fairly
- Use complaints to help us improve our services
What is a complaint?
If you think you have a complaint we want to hear about it.
A complaint could be where you feel we were too slow in dealing with your
request for a service or where you think the quality of our service was poor.
It could also be where you are unhappy with the way in which we dealt with
you.
Certain areas of the Council, for example, Schools, Council Tax, Housing
Benefit, Planning and Parking have statutory rules they must follow when
dealing with complaints. However, you can still complete our online complaints
form to bring your complaint to our attention. The department will then contact
you with details of how your complaint will be handled.
[ back to top ] How to make a complaint
Informal complaints
We know that when things go wrong you want things put right as soon as
possible.
In our experience most problems can be settled quickly by talking to the
member of staff you have been dealing with. If you feel, however, that they
cannot help, or you are not happy with their response, you can also talk to
their manager. Contact details are available by calling 020 8303 7777 or may
be found on this website via the A to Z of
Services. The manager will investigate
and explain what has gone wrong and what they intend to do to put it right. They
will do all they can to resolve things for you.
If after this you are still not satisfied with the way your problem has been
dealt with, you may want to consider making a formal complaint.
How to make a formal complaint
Stage One -
Complete our online complaints form, or contact
us using one of the alternative methods explained below.
The Head of Service will investigate your complaint and you will receive an
acknowledgement within three working days and a full reply within ten
working days. If they can not respond in this time they will tell you why.
Note: There
are separate procedures for Social Care complaints. Please use our online
guidance leaflet and form for  Children's & Young
People's Social Care complaints, representation, comments and suggestions (241KB, PDF file) or
younger people can use our making
a complaint – guidance
for younger people (172KB, PDF file) leaflet.
You can find out more about Adult Social Services complaints by using the
contact details below.
Stage Two -
If you are not satisfied with the answer from Stage One you can write to the
Service Director who will review your complaint and the responses you have
received. Again you will receive an acknowledgement within three working
days and a full reply within ten working days from the date we receive your
letter. If they cannot respond in this time they will tell you why.
Stage Three -
If you still remain dissatisfied with how your complaint has been investigated,
you can contact a  Bexley Councillor (not necessarily your Ward
representative) and ask them to sponsor your complaint. If they agree, your
complaint will be put to the Councillor Appeal Panel, who will investigate it
on
your behalf. An appeal hearing will take place within 20 working days.
How we deal with complaints
If I am still not satisfied what can I do?
If at the end, you are still not satisfied that we have fully
dealt with your complaint, then you can contact the Local Government Ombudsman.
This is an independent person who investigates complaints about local councils.
They will normally only consider your complaint after you have given us the
opportunity to resolve matters for you.
- Local Government Ombudsman
- The Oaks, 2 Westwood Way
Westwood Business Park, Coventry CR4 8JB
- Tel: 0247 682 0000
- Fax: 0247 7682 0001
[ back to top ] How to contact us
If you are not sure who to talk to
telephone us on 020 8303 7777 and
we will put you through to the right
person. Alternatively you can visit us
at our Contact Centre:
- Bexley Civic Offices
- Broadway,
Bexleyheath DA6 7LB
- Monday—Friday 9am—5pm
- Telephone: 020 8303 7777
If you want to talk to someone about
a complaint regarding a specific service the following
people may be able to help:
- Refuse, Recycling, Streets, Parks,
Environmental Health and Trading
Standards, Planning, Traffic and
Parking, Leisure and Sport
- Lin Wise 020 8308 7832
- lin.wise@bexley.gov.uk
[ back to top ]
Further Help
The following organisations may also
be able to offer you general advice
and guidance.
Citizens Advice Bureaux
- Bexleyheath & Welling Citizens Advice Centre
- 8 Brampton Road,
Bexleyheath DA7 4HB
- Tel: 020 8303 5100
- Erith Citizens Advice Centre
- 1 Walnut Tree Road,
Erith DA8 1RA
- Tel: 01322 357933
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