Letter of Complaint to the Council

Your local council provides you with many services and facilities. These include refuse collection providing housing, offering sports and leisure facilities, keeping the roads cleaned and maintained to name just a few. We all pay for these services via our council tax so your council has an obligation to ensure that the services and facilities they offer are of as high a standard as we would expect if we were to go to a restaurant or if we bought something from a shop.

How to Write a Letter of Complaint to Your Local Council

If you are not satisfied with any aspect of the service you receive from your council, you have every right to make a complaint. Often, you might initially do this by phone but it may be necessary to put your complaint in writing, either by using the council’s own complaints form or by writing a letter to them. In the event that your written complaint is not dealt with by your council satisfactorily, you should follow that up with another letter to them stating that, if it isn’t resolved by a certain date, you will report the matter to your Local Government Ombudsman.

As with all forms of written complaints, you should address your letter to the appropriate department and, if possible, try to find out the name of the relevant person within the department who is responsible for dealing with customers’ written complaints. For example, if your local park is continually fouled by dogs or the play area is being wrecked by teenagers, it’s no use you sending a letter to the housing department. It will only delay any resolution.

Your letter should be written in a formal style. You should include as much information as possible about the nature of your complaint and how you would like the situation to be resolved. Remember to include your address and the location of the problem if it occurs elsewhere.

Here is an example of a letter you might write to the refuse collection department of your local council.

Dear Mr. Johnson, I would like to make a formal complaint regarding the emptying of my outdoor bin provided by the council, for the past 2 weeks my bin has not been emptied. I live at 24 Forton Close, Goatworth. I always place it right outside my front gate by 8am on each collection day, as stated on your website and the lid is always fully down. There is nothing in the bin except household refuse so I see no reason why it shouldn’t have been collected and emptied. I have also spoken to my neighbours who have all told me that their bins have been emptied over the same period. Given that the next collection day is only 3 days away, I would like you to contact me by phone to explain why my bin has not been collected for the past 2 weeks and to also confirm that it will be emptied this week. Because your department have failed to empty it on the last two occasions collection was due, I have obviously accumulated more refuse over this period. I have put this into five large black bin bags, fully tied up and secure and I will place these next to the bin for collection this week. I look forward to receiving an explanation by phone from you on the day you receive this letter and also a resumption of my refuse being collected this week and my contact number is 01436 754981. Yours sincerely, Gordon Brewer