Comments, Compliments and Complaints
At Dover District Council we are very conscious of our responsibility to provide the highest possible standard of service to our residents and visitors. We are proud of the standards that we achieve but realise that things do occasionally go wrong. If you wish to make a general enquiry please use our Contact Us form.
Report a problem
Challenge a decision about your benefits, Council Tax or business rates
Complaints about the housing management service
If you are a tenant or leaseholder of Dover District Council and are unhappy with the service you have received, in the first instance you must raise your complaint to the housing department. Please find out about our housing complaints here: Complaints about the Housing Management Service.
Making comments or compliments or complaints
If your comment or complaint is in relation to a specific service and you have not reported the issue to the Council before please use the links under the "Report a problem" section above. As a reminder, if you wish to report a missed bin, this should be done via the Missed Bin Collections page, provided it has been missed within 24 hours of your scheduled collection date.
In order to sort out the mistakes that do happen, and to make sure that they are not repeated, we have put in place a complaints procedure. We are also keen to hear if we have done things well.
What to do if you are unhappy with a Council service
Send us a comment or compliment »
Make a formal complaint about a council service »
Issues that the complaint procedure cannot address
The Council must accept a complaint unless there is a valid reason not to do so but certain issues will fall outside the complaints procedure such as:
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Something you have known about for more than 12 months unless there is good reason for the delay or if there are safeguarding or health and safety issues.
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Something you could appeal about to a tribunal (such as the Housing Benefit Appeals Service) or go to court about, unless there is a good reason why you should not be expected to do so
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Something affecting all or most of the people living in the district, such as a complaint regarding the setting of council tax.
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Something that has already been considered under the complaints policy.
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The Council's main housing repairs contractor has its own complaints process so where a tenant's complaint relates to a repairs issue dealt with by that contractor, the tenant will receive a response direct from the company in the first instance. If the tenant remains dissatisfied following the response it can be considered through the Council's complaints process.
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Allegations that a Councillor has failed to comply with the Code of Conduct for Members as there is a separate complaints process for these matters. Please see our section concerning Complaints about Councillors.
Further Information
Contact Customer Services