Complaints

What is a Complaint? 

"A complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction, however made, about the standard of service, actions, or lack of action by the Council, its own staff or those acting on its behalf, affecting an individual resident or group of residents."

How we deal with complaints 

There are two stages to our complaints process, full details of what you can expect when making a complaint can be found in our Customer Feedback Policy.

If your complaint is about our Housing Management Services, you can access the Housing Ombudsman Service throughout your complaint for impartial advice.

Stage 1

• We will acknowledge your request within 5 working days by either email or letter
• A Service Manager will investigate your complaint
• We will provide a full response within 10 working days from the date we acknowledge your complaint
• We may extend our response time by 10 working days at stage 1. For more information refer to our Customer Feedback Policy

Stage 2

If you remain dissatisfied with our investigation and response at stage 1, you can request a review of your complaint and the decision made. 

• We will acknowledge your request within 5 working days by either email or letter
• A different Senior Manager will conduct a review of your complaint
• We will provide a full response within 20 working days from the date we acknowledge your stage 2 request
• We may extend our response time by 20 working days at stage 2. For more information refer to our Customer Feedback Policy

Stage 2 is the final stage of our complaints process. If you remain dissatisfied after we have reviewed your complaint at stage 2, you can ask the relevant Ombudsman to review how we have handled your complaint.

How can I make a complaint?

The quickest and simplest way for you or someone acting on your behalf to make a complaint is by completing an online Customer Feedback form. If you prefer, you can:

Call us on 01695 577177

Visit one of our Customer Service Points:

• 52 Derby Street, Ormskirk, West Lancashire, L39 2DF 
• Unit 142, The Concourse Shopping Centre, Southway Skelmersdale, WN8 6LN 

Write to us at: Customer Feedback, Business Support, West Lancashire Borough Council, 52 Derby Street Ormskirk Lancashire, L39 2DF.

An officer of the Council can report a complaint on your behalf.

Remedies

We follow the guidelines issued by the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman and the Housing Ombudsman when determining the appropriate remedy. Further details about remedies can be found in the Customer Feedback Policy.

As a Landlord, the Council also has a Housing Services Goodwill & Redress Discretionary Payment Policy, this can be found here. 

What is not handled through the complaints process?

The following matters will not be treated as a complaint. For full details, please refer to our Customer Feedback Policy.

• Requests for a service - such as reporting a missed bin collection, reporting a repair to a Council property, fly tipping removal or litter picking. Please log into your self-service account to request a service. 
• Appeals - where a formal right of appeal or a more appropriate or prescribed legal remedy exists including; Licences, Permits, Approvals, Consents, Permissions, Planning decisions/enforcement. In these instances, you will be informed of the appeals process as part of the decision notice.

Please note, if your complaint relates to an active investigation (e.g. noise nuisance, planning enforcement) that we are undertaking and the outcome of this investigation has not yet been determined by our Officers, we reserve the right to close your complaint until the matter is concluded.  If your complaint relates to a decision that has been lawfully made by the Council (e.g. Planning Permission) and you have a clear right of appeal in law against that decision, we reserve the right to close your complaint as the appeals process will take account of your relevant concerns. In either case, we will write to you to notify you of this. 

• Freedom of Information requests (FOI) see our FOI guidance
• Requests for information or an explanation of Council policy or practice
• Petitions - see our petitions pages
• Complaints regarding issues that occurred over 12 months ago
• Complaints about Lancashire County Council including, highway maintenance, street lighting, education, adult and children's social care
• Council Tax Banding and or Business Rates Rateable Value (RV) - The Council is responsible for maintaining the Council Tax Banding and Business Rates Rating list, ensuring bills are calculated in accordance with the Band/Rateable Value as set by the Valuation Office Agency. Appeals should be raised directly with the Valuation Office Agency. To make an appeal against a decision made by the Council against the amount of council tax you pay e.g., whether you are entitled to a discount you will need to contact the Valuation Tribunal Service. 

Our performance

To find out more about how the Council performs in relation to Customer Feedback and read more about our self-assessment against the Housing Ombudsman Complaint Handling Code visit our performance page.