Compliments and Complaints

Our aim is to deliver right services first time, every time, but we know there are occasions when we get things wrong. When that happens it is important you tell us so we can take action.

The feedback we receive from you will help us review our services and make any necessary changes. It’s also useful to hear what we are doing well as it helps us plan for the future.

Sending compliments or other suggestions

It is always great to receive positive feedback. Compliments can be made about an overall service, department or individual member of staff by using our online compliments form. Alternatively you can visit our reception at the Council House in Avenue Road, Malvern or write to: Compliments and Complaints, The Council House, Avenue Road, Malvern, WR14 3AF

Making a complaint

We follow the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) guidance on complaints, and we will treat any expression that you are dissatisfied with our service or action as a complaint. We will ask whether you would like to make a complaint in line with our complaints procedure, if you have not already stated this in your correspondence.

This is different to a service request, where you are asking us to take action to change something such as improving a service, fixing a problem or reconsidering a decision, for example, if there has been a missed bin collection. These will be passed to the relevant team to address the underlying issue. If you have a specific issue relating to a particular service then please use the Report it page.

When making a complaint, please use clear, straight-forward language using your own words as much as possible. The more information you can give us about what has gone wrong, the more quickly we will be able to look into this and start to put things right. We will often try to speak to you directly about your complaint to help us understand the issue and how this has happened.

Our Member responsible for complaints is the Council Leader.

Data Protection complaints

We also comply with our Data Protection obligations and consider any complaints raised relating to the way in which we have handled your personal data. Please contact us using any of the methods outlined below. Alternatively, you can contact our Data Protection Officer directly via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Complaints outside of our remit

 Please note, we cannot consider complaints in the following circumstances:

•          the conduct of a Councillor – these are overseen by our Monitoring Officer to consider
•          Where a crime may have been committed – please direct these to the police
•          Where the issue is the responsibility of another organisation. For example, Worcestershire Regulatory Services deliver some functions on our behalf such as licensing and pollution control, and Worcestershire County Council deliver county-wide functions such as health, education and social care.

o    If you have a complaint about a function relation to Worcestershire Regulatory Services then please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 01527 881288. Please see the  Worcestershire Regulatory Services complaints procedure for more information.

o   If you have a complaint about Worcestershire County Council then please visit their complaints page for further information: Complaints | Worcestershire County Council

•          Disagreements over policy decisions or those of the Government
•          Where there is a separate appeals process – for example, planning appeals or parking fines. Please use these appeal routes instead.
•          Complaints about matters that are over 12 months old, unless there is a good reason why this should be considered – see our complaints policy for more information

How do I complain?

You can make a complaint in any of the following ways:

1.       Completing our online complaints form, which is available 24 hours a day and will be sent directly to the officer responsible for complaints
2.       Emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
3.       Speaking to any of our officers, who will be able to pass your details to the appropriate officer for them to get in touch with you
4.       Writing to Compliments and Complaints, The Council House, Avenue Road, Malvern, WR14 3AF.

When making a complaint, please include:

•          Your name, address and contact details, so that we can communicate with you about your complaint
•          A clear, straight-forward description of the issue in your own words, and please include any relevant supporting documents
•          The dates of when the incident happened, or should have happened. If there is a significant delay between this time and the time of the complaint, please explain why a complaint has not been made sooner
•          Why and how we should have done things differently
•          How we should put things right

What happens when I complain?

•          We will acknowledge your complaint within 5 working days
•          Stage 1: We will investigate and respond to your complaint within 10 working days, unless the complaint is complex or involves a lot of information and we need more time. In this case, we will contact you regarding a time extension of up to 10 working days unless there is a good reason why we need to extend this further.
•          Stage 2: if you are unhappy with our response, you can escalate the complaint to be reviewed by a senior manager from another department. This request will be acknowledged within 5 days, and you will receive a response within 20 working days of the complaint being acknowledged. This can be extended for 20 days if the complaint is complex or involves a lot of information, unless there is a good reason why we need to extend this further.
•          Ombudsman: If you are unhappy with our stage 2 response, you can contact the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman
  PO Box 4771
  Coventry
  CV4 0EH
•          You can also visit the local government ombudsmen website or call 0300 061 0614 or text ‘call back’ on 0762 480 3014 (Monday–Friday, 8.30am–5pm).
•          If your complaint is about data protection, you can also contact the Information Commissioner’s Office at any point after you have raised your complaint with us: you can visit their website, Make a complaint | ICO, or you can call their helpline on 0303 123 1113. Alternatively, you can write to the ICO at Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.