Communicate with the council
The first step in working out any difficulty with a council is to get in contact with the council. There may be a very simple solution to your problem, or you may even find that the council isn’t the right organisation to which to direct your complaint.
The Find your council section has all council’s contact details.
Contacting the council by telephone
Councils are quite easy to contact. If you telephone your council on its main public contact number you will generally speak to a customer service officer who has a general knowledge of most things the council does and will usually be either able to solve your problem for you or put you in contact with the right person.
Some council decisions are subject to consultation or objection processes, which means that you may be able to make a submission or lodge an objection. A council customer service officer at the council should be able to advise you if this is the case.
Some common complaints that councils get are about services that are provided by other organisations. If your problem isn’t with a council service, the customer service officer will usually be able to advise you which organisation to contact, and he or she may even be able to give you contact details.
Remember that the person you speak with on the telephone will usually want to help you and will be better able to do so if you help them. Be courteous. Even if you think someone at the council has made a mistake, it’s unlikely to be the person you are speaking to on the telephone.
Other ways to contact the council
Other ways that you can make quick contact with the council include:
- Visiting the council office in person and speaking with council staff
- Lodging a complaint by email. Some councils have a dedicated email complaint service that you can access on the council’s web site
Before you contact or visit the council, it will help if you have any documents or other information relevant to the problem at hand. This can avoid unnecessary delays or confusion.
Sometimes the matter may be too complex to be resolved by telephone or in a brief visit to the council. In such cases you may need to describe the issue in writing. Council contact staff should be able to advise you about what written material is needed and who it should be addressed to.
Getting more information
It may help you to solve your problem if you get more information about the relevant activity or service.
- This Guide has general information that relates to the types of activities undertaken by all councils. (Activities or services can differ from council to council)
- Your council’s internet site is likely to have more specific information about the councils’ activities and services that may assist you
- The council’s customer service officers may be able to provide additional information or direct you to where you can get such information
Understand broader constraints
Remember that a council has to act in the best interests of the entire community and will have to take account of other people’s needs as well as financial and legal restrictions.
If your problem affects other people it is possible that their needs or views may be quite different from your own. Alternatively the council may not be able to afford the cost of works or services that could solve your problem or it may be unable to do something because of laws that prevent or require particular actions.
You may need to work with the council and try to understand the difficulties. In the end, you may need to compromise or even accept that council can’t do what you want. If this happens, though, you generally have a right to an explanation as to why the council can’t do what you have asked.
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