Complaints

Whether positive or negative, we appreciate feedback about your experience with the Council. Hearing back from you helps us to improve our service to customers and can highlight areas we might otherwise miss.

Set out below is the procedure we follow when you decide to make a complaint about our actions and behaviours. The procedure makes sure that your concerns are dealt with fairly and consistently, and that all parties to the  complaint felt heard, understood and respected.

 

How to contact us

Phone: (03) 211 1777

Email: customer.service@icc.govt.nz

Post: Invercargill City Council, Private Bag 90104, Invercargill 9840

In person: Te Hīnaki – Civic Building, 101 Esk Street, Invercargill 

 

When you should complain

  • You believe that we have failed to provide you with a satisfactory service within a reasonable time-frame and within our levels of service
  • You believe we are not following what we said we would do in a policy or set of rules
  • You are unhappy with the behaviour or service received from an employee

 

When a complaint is not appropriate

Sometimes a member of the community may have an issue that sits outside of the scope of this policy and needs to be dealt with through different channels. These issues will not be entered into the Register as formal complaints. Examples of this include:

  • Disagreement with a Council Bylaw, policy or decision
  • Disagreement with matters that Council is obliged to apply by law
  • Matters where a legal procedure is already underway between the individual and Council
  • Emergency response matters
  • Criminal allegations
  • Matters that already have a formal right of appeal
  • Three Waters “complaints” as defined in the Department for Internal Affairs’ Non-Financial Performance Measures Rules 2013, except where the issue also amounts to a formal complaint as defined above for the purposes of this policy. These will be recorded in our Pathway system
  • Issues regarding an Elected Member, as these are dealt with under the Code of Conduct (see below)

 

Learn more

To learn more refer to the Customer Complaint Policy 2023 on our Policies page.