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Formal complaint to your council (Wales)
Wales · in English
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For a resident unhappy with a council service or decision — bins, potholes, planning enforcement, noise, social care, a school place process or poor handling of an earlier request: a formal complaint under the council’s complaints procedure, saying what happened, what you have done so far and what you want the council to do. Use the council’s online form if it has one. If you are still unhappy after its final reply, the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales looks at complaints free of charge. You may write to a Welsh council in Welsh and receive its answer in Welsh.
- Made for use in Wales
- Last updated October 28, 2026
- Document in English
Where a UK document reproduces the words of legislation or of a government publication — UK, Scottish or Northern Irish — it contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
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When to use this document
- Your council in Wales ignores your reports about noise from a nearby site.
- Your bins have not been collected for weeks and nobody at the council responds.
- You are unhappy with how the council dealt with your request for help for an elderly relative.
- You want to complain to the council before taking it to the ombudsman for Wales.
What you fill in
The details the document asks for.
- Sender
- Sender's address
- Town or city
- Sender's postcode
- Date
- Council
- Council's address, with postcode
- Council's reference (blank if none)
- Service or decision the complaint is about (e.g. missed bin collections)
- What the complaint is about
- Complaint history
- Requested outcome
- Attachments
Common questions
- Should I use the Welsh council’s online complaint form instead?
- If it has one, yes, or paste this letter into it: every council publishes its complaints procedure and most take complaints online or by email, free. The letter is for when you want a clear written record of what you asked and when. Some matters have their own route: parking penalty charge notices go to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal and council tax band appeals to the Valuation Tribunal for Wales.
- When can I go to the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales?
- Once the council has had the chance to answer through its complaints procedure. The Public Services Ombudsman for Wales is free and normally expects your complaint within 12 months of when you first knew about the problem, though it can look at older ones. Complain online, by phone or by post, with a copy of this letter and the council’s replies. You may write to the council and to the Ombudsman in Welsh.
- What should a complaint to a council in Wales include?
- The facts in date order, with reference numbers, the names of people you dealt with and copies of letters, emails and photos; what you have already done to sort it out; and a clear outcome you want — an apology, a decision looked at again, a repair, a refund or a change of practice. Keep it factual and polite, ask for a reply, and keep a copy of everything. The council’s answer is the first step towards the Ombudsman.
How you can sign this document
- Print it and sign by hand. The signature lines in the document are left blank on purpose — sign on them in ink.
- Sign it yourself with a qualified electronic signature. If you already hold a QES — Evrotrust, B-Trust, StampIT, ZealiD or any qualified provider on the EU Trusted List, on a card, a USB token, in a mobile app or in the cloud — our signing guide explains step by step how to sign this exact file without invalidating it. Step-by-step help, and a way to check it worked
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