Environmental Health Service Standards Summary

1) to treat you with courtesy and respect
2) to respect your individual privacy, dignity, religious and cultural beliefs
3) to ensure people with special needs can use our services
4) to respond to your initial complaint within 7 working days
5) to keep you informed of our action, your rights and to tell you who is dealing with your request
6) to give you the opportunity to comment on our performance, and to listen to your views.

In cases of complaints about neighbours it is always sensible to try to resolve the issue by discussion with the person(s) concerned. In many cases a reasonable solution can be found without involving the Council.

Environmental Health has specialist Officers grouped into sections dealing with areas of work such as food, safety, pollution, housing, pest and dog control.

Your request will be passed to the most suitable Officer (or Officers if several areas are involved) who will attempt to contact you as soon as possible, but certainly within seven working days to discuss the situation and how we can deal with it. We aim to reply to letters within fourteen days. Please see our detailed Service Standards. The Council also has a Corporate Customer Care Policy

If we do not have powers or responsibility to deal with your complaint we will pass it to the appropriate agency as soon as possible and let you know what we have done.

Your request will certainly be investigated quickly and answered as soon as possible. For instance, complaints about food poisoning, illegal eviction and accidents or emergencies will be dealt with straight away if at all possible, and certainly by the end of the next working day. For other complaints we aim to contact you within 7 days, but usually you’ll hear from us sooner.

The Council must act as an independent agent and has to look into both sides of any complaint, i.e. yours, and the person or organisation you are complaining about.

We must establish the exact problem and whether any law the Council can enforce has been broken. With some complaints, e.g. nuisance from noise and dust, this can mean a number of visits being made in order to obtain enough evidence of an offence. This obviously takes time and will need patience on your part whilst a complete picture is built up. In this way the Council can follow the correct legal process so that, if need be, formal action can be taken.

In other circumstances, for example food complaints, Manufacturers, Importers and Retailers have to be traced, contacted and interviewed. Their premises may also need to be visited. This may cause unavoidable delays, but will ensure that your complaint is dealt with thoroughly. You can be sure that there will be much activity on your behalf behind the scenes. We will do our utmost to resolve your request as soon as we can and hope that any investigation will be completed and initial action begun within three months.

Yes, you should be advised of investigation procedures when you first contact us: you should then be contacted soon after you have complained (within seven days or sooner, if possible) when the issues and the proposed action will be discussed with you by the investigating officer. Following this, you should be kept advised of progress either by a visit, telephone or letter. (The maximum interval between each contact should be no more than four weeks).

Officers are always pleased to discuss progress with you at any time. If you wish to telephone these offices the best time is usually between 9.00am and 10.00am or 4.00pm and 5.15pm Monday to Thursday and 4.00pm to 4.45pm on Friday, when the officers are most likely to be in the building. Messages can, of course, always be left at any time during normal office hours.

Direct action by the Council may eliminate the problem completely. Legal Notices may be served to prohibit activity such as undue noise, dust or smoke, or to require improvement of unsatisfactory conditions such as defective property or dangerous practices. Alternatively, the Council may decide to prosecute for, say, the selling of unfit food, harassment of tenants or causing pollution.

When formal action is taken there may well be delays whilst legal processes are followed, matters are put before Council Committees for final decisions, or Court dates are awaited.

We cannot promise to bring every request for service or complaint to a conclusion which satisfies you in every way. However, we do promise to investigate the matters with all due diligence and take action which is legally possible and appropriate.

Some of the services provided by the Council have an extra cost to people who use them e.g. pest control. If your complaint involves the use of these services, you should be told right from the start what the likely costs are to be.

If you wish to query any charges, then please do not hesitate to contact the senior officer responsible for that service. Their names appear below.

Unless you instruct us to release your name and address we will keep your identity strictly confidential. However, should Court action result, your name and address will become known in any hearing which takes place.

If you are not satisfied with the way your request has been handled we would like you to tell us. Please contact the officer named below outlining your dissatisfaction.

Your concerns will be investigated and responded to as quickly as possible, but certainly within 14 days. You will be given a full response on the issues you raise.

We are keen to ensure that the Environmental Health Service gives value for money. Your views are important because they help us to regularly review the services we offer and the way we deliver them.

As a matter of routine we undertake random customer satisfaction surveys. If you receive a survey form we would be most grateful if you could spare the time to complete and return it.