If you are unhappy about a Council service, we want to hear about it. Please use the Let us know Form.
We want your help to make our services better.
In any organisation things will go wrong, and that's the time you want to be able to get in touch with the Council to sort any problems out.
A lot of people feel embarrassed or awkward when making a complaint, and often problems go unnoticed, simply because people don't let us know.
When you return a form we will send you an acknowledgement within three working days, and give you a detailed response within 15 working days.
We will take your comments and complaints seriously. We will find out if our service has failed, explain the circumstances to you and correct that failure, if we can. You can refer the complaint to our Chief Executive, then to the Ombudsman if you're not satisfied. You can involve your local councillor at any stage of this process.
Anything you say will be treated in confidence and will not disadvantage you in the future.
We record all the complaints we receive, and will use your comments constructively to improve our services.
When a complaint is received by the Council, either by letter or through the "Let Us Know!" complaints form, it is logged and initially investigated and responded to by the Business Manager. If the complainant is not satisfied with the response, they have the right of appeal to the Chief Executive. A further investigation is undertaken by the Chief Executive, and a response is issued within twenty working days. The final course of appeal for the complainant is to contact the Local Government Ombudsman. The Local Government Ombudsman will investigate the complaint, usually by contacting the Chief Executive's office requesting further information, or by visiting the Council to have a look through files and interviewing the relevant officers, and sometimes by visiting the complainant in person.
The Ombudsman makes a judgement on the evidence acquired, and responds directly to the complainant, copying the Council in on their decision.
The Ombudsman issues a letter (79KB) 
to the authority once a year, which informs us of our performance on any complaints which have reached the Ombudsman stage.
The Ombudsman who deals with this Council is at:
Beverley House
17 Shipton Road
York
YO3 6FZ
Phone: 01904 380200
Fax: 01904 663269
The Local Government Ombudsman has a leaflet called 'Complaint about the Council? How to complain to the Local Government Ombudsman'. You can get a copy by telephoning or writing to the address above, or you can download it from the Ombudsman website (External website**).
If you have an enquiry about the Local Government Ombudsman's service you can telephone their Adviceline on 0845 602 1983.
**Please note: High Peak Borough Council is not responsible for the content of any external websites.