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Complaints Procedure

  1. Ryhill Parish Council is committed to providing a quality service for the benefit of the people who live and work in its area or are visitors to the locality. If you are dissatisfied with the standard of service you have received from this council or are unhappy about an action or lack of action by this council, this Complaints Procedure sets out how you may complain to the council and how we shall try to resolve your complaint.
  2. The following procedure will be adopted for dealing with complaints about the Councils administration or its procedures and may include complaints about how council employees have dealt with your concerns. Complaints about a policy decision made by the Council will be referred back to the Council, or relevant Committee, as appropriate, for consideration.
  3. This Complaints Procedure does not apply to:
    1. Complaints by one council employee against another council employee, or between a council employee and the council as employer. These matters are dealt with under the councils disciplinary and grievance procedures.
    2. Complaints against Councillors which are covered by the Code of Conduct for Members adopted by the council. Any complaint that a Councillor may have breached the Council’s adopted code of conduct should be referred to the Monitoring Officer at Wakefield Council.
  4. If a complaint is about procedures or administration then a written record of the complaint should be made to the Clerk the Council.
  5. You will be asked to put the complaint in writing to the Parish Clerk at Ryhill Parish Council, La Chanteuse, Common Lane, Upton, WF9 1DF and the complaint will be acknowledged within 14 days of receipt.
  6. Complaints will be heard and considered by the complaints committee which consists of ClIr C D Bashforth (Chair), ClIr Brian Burnage (Deputy Chair) and Councillor Andrew Atherton.
  7. There will be circumstances when a complainant persists in wishing to pursue a complaint when it clearly has no reasonable basis, or when the Council has already taken reasonable action in response or where some other process, whether through the courts or some other recognised procedure, should, or has been taken. These matters will be referred to the Parish Council by the Clerk with a summary of the issues and of the attempts made to resolve the complaint. The Parish Council may, in such circumstances, decide that no further action can usefully be taken in response to the complainant and inform the complainant so, making it clear that only new and substantive issues wi merit a response.
  8. If the complainant feels that it wishes to appeal against the process in which the decision was reached, they should appeal in writing, stating full grounds of the appeal, to the Clerk to the Council within one week of the date on which they were informed in writing of the decision.
  9. Where possible the appeal hearing will be conducted by Councillors who were not previously involved in the case.