Complaints and compliments

Before you start

Most concerns that are raised with the Council can be resolved without the need to make a formal complaint. These include requests for service such as missed bins, potholes etc. which should be raised directly with the service as they are often time critical. 

You can access services or use our search function to find the issue you need to raise such as: 

• Potholes
• Rubbish or recycling that hasn't been collected
• Fly-tipping
• Abandoned cars
• Housing repair
• Overgrown vegetation
• Pay or Appeal a parking ticket

If the problem continues or you do not feel the issue has been resolved by local resolution, then you can log a formal complaint.  

Please note if you continue to complete a complaint form, we will still initially try to resolve this informally. 

Make a complaint

Complain to us if:

• You're not happy with a service we've provided
• You're not happy with the way you've been treated

Make a complaint

If you are not sure whether your concern should follow an alternative process to the list above, please email customerrelations@wokingham.gov.uk and we will be able to advise you.

Complaints process

This is a two-stage internal process, then an independent stage if necessary.

We will acknowledge your complaint within five working days and will let you know if we can progress your concern under Stage 1 of the formal corporate complaints process.  If we cannot, we will let you know and advise you if there is another way for your concern to be looked at.

Stage 1

A complaint at Stage 1 will be passed to an appropriate officer in the service the complaint relates to for a response. The council will aim to reply within 10 working days from the date your complaint has been acknowledged by the relevant service team, or to let you know within this time if the reply will take longer and the reason why.

Stage 2 

If you're not satisfied with the outcome you received at Stage 1, you may have a right to ask for a review of your complaint at Stage 2. If you wish to do this, you should let us know what you feel has not been answered in your Stage 1 response. If we progress your complaint at Stage 2, a different officer will review the complaint and reply within 20 working days or advise you if the reply will take longer.  This is the final stage of the council’s corporate complaints process.

In some situations, we may refer you directly to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) or Housing Ombudsman (HO) rather than take your complaint to Stage 2. If this happens, we will let you know why.

Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) and/or Housing Ombudsman (HO)

If you have been through both stages of our formal corporate complaint’s procedure, or we have referred you after Stage 1 and you are still unhappy, you can ask the LGSCO or HO to review your complaint. The Ombudsman investigates complaints in a fair and independent way - it does not take sides. It is a free service.

You can speak to the LGSCO or HO at any time, but they would normally expect you to have given us a chance to deal with your complaint before you contact them. 

If you have not heard from us within a reasonable time, the LGSCO or HO may decide to look into your complaint anyway.

You can read the following documents for more details about our complaints process:

• Complaints policy (PDF)
• Unreasonably persistent complaints policy (PDF)
• Easy Read complaints guide (PDF)

Compliments 

If you have a compliment you would like to pass on regarding a Council decision, a Council service, the website or an individual, we would love to hear from you. 
Please select the Green smiling face below Website feedback and tell us all about your experience. This will be shared appropriately and helps us continue to improve and recognise good practice.