Compliments, complaints and suggestions

It’s always nice to know when we get things right, but we also want to know when we get things wrong.

Please tell us if you have something to say about any of our services. We will tell our staff what you think and use the information to continue to improve our services.

Compliments and suggestions

We would like to know if we have done things well and to hear your suggestions:

We will tell our staff what you think and use the information to continue to improve our services.

Is it a complaint, or a service request?

Service requests and complaints are slightly different. A service request is a contact from a customer that brings a matter to the council's attention for the first time, and requests a service offered by the council, for example, reporting a missed bin or telling us about noise nuisance.

A complaint is a where the customer expresses dissatisfaction about the standard of a service, actions, or lack of actions by the council and its staff.

If you think your concern might be a service request, please contact the service in question by visiting our contact us page. If you aren't sure, you can call the customer service centre using the details at the bottom of this page.

Complaints

If you need to complain about one of our services, we will do our best to put things right and make sure that the same thing doesn't happen again to you or to someone else.

When you first make a complaint we need to know your name, how we can contact you, the details of your complaint, what you want us to do to put things right and whether you have raised this issue with us before and who was dealing with it.

We aim to reply to all complaints within 10 working days. If we need longer, we will tell you why. We will also let you know who is dealing with your complaint.

Please try to resolve problems by raising them with the person you have been dealing with in the first instance.

Make a complaint

We aim to respond to all complaints within 10 working days. If we need longer, we will tell you why. We will also let you know who is dealing with your complaint.

Complain about a councillor’s conduct

If you want to complain about a city councillor’s conduct, complete our code of conduct complaint form.

Complain about a councillor’s conduct

Complain about a planning decision or application

The Greater Cambridge Shared Planning service has published guidance about where to send your comments.

Greater Cambridge Shared Planning service: Complaints

Escalate a complaint

If we do not resolve your complaint to your satisfaction, you can ask us to escalate it to senior manager.

If after this you are still not happy with our response, you can ask the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman to review your complaint. If you are a council tenant, or a council leaseholder with a complaint about our management of your leasehold, you should contact the Housing Ombudsman.

The ombudsmen investigate complaints in a fair and independent way – they do not take sides. They will not charge you to review your complaint. They will expect you to have given us a chance to deal with your complaint before you contact them.

Annual reports

Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman annual report

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) produces an annual summary of complaint statistics for every local council.

LGSCO’s complaint statistics and annual review letters about Cambridge City Council

Housing Ombudsman Complaint Handling Code self-assessment

We have reviewed how our housing service handles complaints, in response to the Housing Ombudsman's Complaint Handling Code. Our self-assessment includes a list of actions that we plan to take to build upon the current service.

Housing Ombudsman Complaint Handling Code self-assessment [PDF, 0.6MB] – presented at Strategy and Resources Scrutiny Committee on 21 November 2024

Cambridge City Council