General enquiries
Many issues can be resolved without the need to make a formal complaint. You can report or contact us about any issues using our general contact form.
Complaints about councillors
If you wish to make a complaint about a borough or parish councillor, see our standards committee and councillor complaints page.
Corporate complaints - formal complaints about council services
We strive to provide the best possible service we can to customers and take all complaints seriously.
Reasons why you are dissatisfied could include:
- We took longer than our published timescales
- We didn’t do what we said we would
- We gave you the wrong information
- We treated you unfairly
Our complaints procedure does not cover:
- Day to day service requests or faults, or where a third party is involved
- Decision appeals relating to parking or planning
- Services provided by other public authorities such as North Yorkshire County Council (for example, education, transport, and highways)
- Complaints about councillors
- Allegations of fraud or criminality
Stage 1
- Upon receipt of your complaint, we will send you an acknowledgement and inform you about what will happen with your complaint next.
- We try to provide a full and in-depth response to your complaint, and we will aim to do this within 20 working days. If for any reason we need more time to investigate your complaint, we will let you know.
- If you do not respond back to us, we will consider that you have been satisfied with the response you have received.
Stage 2
- If you are not satisfied with our response, you should contact our Customer First Centre in writing (this includes online or via email) within 30 days of receiving our response explaining why you continue to be dissatisfied.
- We will inform you that we have escalated your complaint to Stage 2 of our complaints process, and we will arrange a full review of your complaint by an independent complaints board.
- We will send you a final written response detailing our findings within 20 working days. Should a full response not be possible within this timescale, an extension of up to a further 20 working days may be required, and we will inform you if this is so. If your complaint is very complex and this is not possible, we will keep you informed about the progress.
Log a complaint, comment, or compliment >
You can also view our complaints policy here.
Already complained to the council?
If you're still not satisfied you may wish to contact the Local Government Ombudsman who may investigate your complaint further. The Ombudsman will only consider your complaint once it has been considered under both stages of our complaints procedure.