Your complaints, our responses...

Cumbria County Council is committed to providing high-quality services to the people of Cumbria

Your feedback is essential and we welcome your comments, compliments and complaints as these help us to review and develop our services.  By making your views known, you can help us achieve the highest possible standards and provide a better service to everyone.

See below some examples of how we have responded to your feedback and how it has been used to improve the services we offer.

Highways Hotline

Complaint: Several customers have written to the County Council saying that they have been disappointed with the service they have received after 7pm from the Highways Hotline.

Response: These complaints have been considered by Scrutiny Performance Theme A and as from October 2006 an improved service will be available due to the fact that Amey will now be providing this service with much tighter performance management and monitoring.

Customer Access

Complaint:  A survey we carried out in 2006 showed that customers would like to have extended opening hours for reception and telephone access.

Response: Cumbria County Council's switchboard has had it's hours extended and work is currently under way to extend opening hours even further where possible.  Surveys have shown that 47% of people consulted would like to see opening hours from 8am to 8pm.  Reception at The Courts in Carlisle have also been extended and now open 8:45am to 5:15pm.

Complaint from a member of public for Highways

Received 22 December 2008

Complaint:  The road leading to my house is a very rural one. When it freezes the road is extremely slippy. Could someone contact me regarding making this road safer to travel on.

Response:  The complainant was told that her that salt will be delivered to the road near her farm either the same day or the following morning. This was promised to Highways by Amey staff at Millness depot at 10.45am that day. Amey staff telephoned the complainant before delivery to ascertain exactly where to place the salt. The complainant was happy with this, and was told to call Highways mid morning the following day if the salt hadn't been delivered.

Complaint from a member of public for Libraries

Received 12 January 2009

Complaint: Your on-line catalogue is frequently slow. It often displays authors bearing no relevance to the request, or denying the existence of some authors. Please may this be resolved. I'm very keen on saving the library services, but I feel this online catalogue programme has some flaws.

Response:  I am sorry to hear you have experienced difficulties with our on-line catalogue recently.  

We are well aware of this and one or two other access problems that have arisen since the acquisition of our new Library Management System, Unicorn last year.   Our IT specialists are working hard to resolve the outstanding problems and we hope to have all elements of our electronic services operating smoothly in the very near future.   I can only ask for your patience while we resolve matters and I hope that you will continue to use the range of other services offered by Cumbria Library Services.