If you have a complaint about a council service / building / member of staff, or were unhappy with the level of service you received from us, we want to know about it.

You can do this yourself, or if you wish you can ask a local councillor to take up the complaint on your behalf. If you live outside the Borough of Christchurch, you can contact your local council for details of your councillors if you do not wish to contact us directly.

Most matters can be sorted out by contacting the department responsible for providing the service. A letter / fax / email detailing the complaint is preferred, but you can also use our complaints form (pdf, 2Mb) (opens in a new window) . A large print version (pdf, 3Mb) (opens in a new window)  is also available.

If you are unhappy with the response you receive from us, you can ask for your complaint to be looked at again by writing to:

Chief Executive
Christchurch Borough Council
Civic Offices
Bridge Street
Christchurch BH23 1AZ

You should only submit your complaint to the Chief Executive after trying to resolve the matter with the department responsible for the service. If you submit your complaint directly to the Chief Executive without first trying to sort the matter out with the department responsible for the service, you cannot ask the Chief Executive to look again at your complaint.

In the unlikely event that you are still not satisfied with our response, you may be able to progress your complaint through the Local Government Ombudsman, who is independent from the council. More details about the role of the Local Government Ombudsman and how you can submit a complaint to them can be found in the publication "How to Complain to the Local Government Ombudsman", available from Christchurch Borough Council (01202 495000), or from the Christchurch Citizens Advice Bureau (opens in a new window)  (2 Sopers Lane, Christchurch BH23 1JG. Telephone 01202 482023). You can also download this from the Local Government Ombudsman website (opens in a new window) .

What happens next?

If you would like us to send a reply to your comment / complaint / compliment, you need to tell us. Normally, we will reply using the same method that you use to contact us, but you can request a different way.

We aim to reply to customers within five working days, but complex matters may take up to 20 working days for a response. If we are unable to provide a response within five working days, we have a range of targets for acknowledging receipt of your comment / complaint / compliment. These are provided below together with our general targets for customer care:

Our targets

• Email - we aim to email back an acknowledgement within 24 hours
• Face-to-face - if you visit a council reception area, we aim to attend to you within 10 minutes
• Letters/faxes - we aim to acknowledge your letter within five days if we cannot send you a full response within that period. Complex matters can take up to 20 working days for a response
• Telephone - we aim to answer within six rings
• Text messages (SMS) - we aim to acknowledge text messages within 24 hours
• Voicemail - we aim to acknowledge voicemail messages within 24 hours

• Complaints about councillors - Christchurch Borough Council

  If you feel that a councillor or a Member of Burton or Hurn Parish Councils have not behaved in a correct way, you can now make a complaint to your local council for investigation, rather than to the Standards Board for England.

• Customer Services Manager
  Name: Sean Hawkins
  Email: customer.services@christchurch.gov.uk
  Tel: 01202 495153
  Full details for Sean Hawkins