COMPLAINTS, COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS
You are entitled and encouraged to contact the Council and to receive replies. Contacts may comprise comments, representations on planning applications, criticisms of a policy which the Council has adopted, information useful to the Council, requests for services or formal complaints.
However hard the Council tries properly to respond to the wishes and aspirations of the public it will fail sometimes to satisfy those wishes or aspirations. Sometimes the views of a member of the public and the Council cannot coincide because, for example, the Council is compelled to act in a certain way or its perception of the wider public interest may be different from a resident's personal considerations.
Nevertheless, there are occasions when the Council gets it wrong. Then a review will be undertaken in an open and honest way because the Council cares about providing high quality services and wishes to respond positively.
The Council has produced a document 'A guide about how to make comments, compliments and complaints about Horsham District Council'. This guide identifies what is a complaint and what is not a complaint. It explains how both formal complaints and those matters which are comments, representations, issues for other bodies, criticisms of Council policy, information for the Council's use, requests for services or information or for explanations of decisions are handled.
The guide is intended:
- to enable you to know how to complain and to understand the way in which your complaint will be handled
- to enable staff to be confident about what to do when they receive a complaint
- to ensure that everyone is treated fairly
- to enable the Council to learn and to see how services can be improved.
Complaints Guide
Complaints Guide (174kb)
Your guide to the Council's procedure for handling complaints and suggestions. Includes departmental telephone and email contacts.
Complaint and Suggestions forms
If you need to make a complaint, please use our online complaint form.
If you wish to make a suggestion, please use our online suggestions form.
Constitution
The full complaints and suggestions procedure can be found in the Council's Constitution at Part 5D. A copy of this section is available below.
Part 5D - Guide for handling comments, representations
Part 5D - Guide for handling comments, representations (92kb)
This guide identifies what is a complaint and what is not a complaint. It explains how both formal complaints and those matters which are comments or representations are handled.
Complaints Report for 1st Quarter of 2009
Complaints Report for 1st Quarter of 2009 (186kb)
This file is a PDF document and may require the Adobe Acrobat Reader to view. You can download this utility by clicking on the left side link.
Complaints Report for 4th Quarter of 2008
Complaints Report for 4th Quarter of 2008 (65kb)
This file is a PDF document and may require the Adobe Acrobat Reader to view. You can download this utility by clicking on the left side link.
Complaints Report for 3rd Quarter of 2008
Complaints Report for 3rd Quarter of 2008 (112kb)
This file is a PDF document and may require the Adobe Acrobat Reader to view. You can download this utility by clicking on the left side link.