How to Complain
As a first step, you may wish to contact a senior manager responsible for the area of work where you have a complaint or comment informally, either by telephone or in writing. Alternatively, if you telephone the Broads Authority and explain that you wish to make a complaint, you will be put through to the senior member of staff best able to deal with your concerns. As a further option there is also a facility to email the Authority via the Contact page. By approaching the Authority in this more informal way, you can be sure that your concerns will be dealt with efficiently and every effort will be made to find a way to satisfactorily resolve your complaint and to give proper consideration to your comments.
You will be provided with a written reply to your complaints or comments within 10 working days of receipt. After obtaining your reply you may still feel unsatified and wish to take the matter further. The person who responded to your complaint will automatically include details of how to take the matter forward to the next step, the Authority’s formal stage complaint. You can also proceed to formal complaint stage by writing direct to the Director of Corporate Services with details of your formal complaint. You may find it helpful to complete and submit a Formal Stage Complaint Form (word document) [106kb] at the same time. The Director of Corporate Services will ensure that the relevant director receives your letter and completed form. You will be sent an acknowledgement of your formal complaint within three working days of receipt.
When a director receives a formal stage complaint it is their responsibility to reconsider the whole complaint objectively and with professionalism. He or she will provide you with a detailed reply in writing within 10 working days, identifying whether your complaint is upheld or not. If it is upheld you will receive an apology and, if relevant, be told what is proposed in order to put things right. If it is not possible to respond in full within 10 working days you will be sent a letter explaining why, and will be given an indication of when the response will be ready. As with the informal stage complaint, should you remain dissatisfied or your complaint is not upheld, the reply will automatically include details of how to take the matter forward to the final step in the Broads Authority’s complaint scheme, the Chief Executive’s review stage.
Your request to proceed to the Chief Executive’s review stage is normally only available to you if you have first been through the informal stage and then formal stage complaint process and are still unsatisfied. Your complaint should be in writing and addressed to the Chief Executive stating clearly your request for a Chief Executive’s review of your complaint. An acknowledgement letter will be sent within three days of receipt and a detailed reply, setting out the Chief Executive’s review findings, will be sent to you within 10 working days. If it is not possible to respond in the timescale you will be sent a letter explaining why.
This is the last stage in the Authority’s complaint scheme and it requires the Chief Executive to review your complaint in an impartial manner. He will undertake a full and independent review of all aspects of your concerns. If he considers it helpful, he may seek the assistance of the Authority’s Monitoring Officer and he may also seek agreement from the appropriate Committee if he considers compensation is a suitable course of action, in order to reach an agreeable settlement. He will also apologise if he finds that the Authority was wrong and will set out how he intends to stop the same thing from happening again. The Chief Executive’s review stage decision, to either uphold or not uphold a complaint, is final.
The reply you receive from the Chief Executive will clearly set out your right to contact the Commission for Local Administration in England (the Local Government Ombudsman). If you consider that your complaint was made because the Authority had not followed its procedures correctly and may have caused you an injustice, the Local Government Ombudsman can be contacted at the Oaks, Westwood Way, Westwood Business Park, Coventry CV4 8JB. The website address is www.lgo.org.uk.
Occasionally your complaint will be dealt with under a different procedure. For details please go to Other Complaints Procedures.
