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4.3 If a complaint about the procedures, administration or the actions of any of the Council's employees is notified orally to a Councillor or the Chief Executive, then the complainant will be asked to place the complaint in writing.

4.4 Acknowledgement of receipt of the complaint will be provided within 7 days within normal circumstances. The Council aims to respond to the complaint within 28 working days, if this is not possible you will be advised of actions taken to date and an anticipated completion date (this may be necessary as staff and/or Councillors may be on leave, redeployed to manage essential infrastructure or information may need to be obtained from other parties who provide services to the Council).

4.5 If the complainant prefers not to address the complaint to the Chief Executive (because the matter relates to the Chief Executive, for example), they will be advised to address it to the Mayor.

4.6 If the complaint is in relation to the conduct of a member (or members) then the complainant will automatically be directed to the Cornwall Council Monitoring Officer.

4.7 Anonymous complaints will be disregarded.

5.1 The Council’s aim is to resolve any complaint that it receives at the earliest opportunity. It does however recognise that this is not always possible in the view of the complainant, therefore this procedure provides for the complainant to make a direct approach to the Council’s elected Members through a formal process.

5.2 The Chief Executive will likely appoint an investigating officer who will investigate the complaint and provide the Chief Executive with a report on the facts as identified and any recommendations or matters of note to assist the Chief Executive in taking the complaint forwards.

5.3 Where the complaint is successfully dealt with through direct action with the complainant, the Chief Executive will report this either to the next meeting of the Council or to the respective committee which is responsible for the subject of the complaint (depending on the nature of the complaint, this may be done under exempt business).