Director: Terry Collins

Customer service standards

Our commitment to you:

We do our best to provide the highest possible standard of service to our customers. We promise to treat everyone fairly, courteously and sensitively. We will try and achieve the following standards at all times:

• We will answer your call within 20 seconds.
• Complaints will be responded to and resolved within 10 working days.
• Letters (including forms, faxes, and emails) will be answered within 10 working days of receipt.
• Letters will include the name and contact details of the person dealing with your matter.
• Customers visiting our offices will be seen within 10 minutes.
• If we have to pass your enquiry to a colleague, we will tell you who will be dealing with your enquiry.
• All council leaflets and information can be made available in other languages, large print, audiotape, or Braille, as appropriate.
• We will seek the views of customers by conducting at least one major survey annually and others on an on-going basis to facilitate continuous service improvement.

Feedback

We welcome and encourage your feedback, complaints and suggestions about how we run our service. We would like to hear from you if:

• You feel that you have received a good service from us or there is a particular part of our service that you like;
• You would like to suggest ways in which we can improve our service;
• You are unhappy about the way a member of staff helped you or with the level of service you have received;
• You feel that you have been treated unfairly, insensitively, or discriminated against.

Accessible Information

• We will make all our performance information and results easily accessible to our customers.
• Information will be published on our website or be available upon request.
  

Our services

Licensing and Regulation

Bereavement Services - provides a dignified and sympathetic cremation and burial service. The crematorium conducts some 2100 cremations a year and we provide a small cemetery at Dringhouses. Welfare funerals are arranged where people die with no immediate family to make the funeral arrangements.

Licensing - covers a wide range of licensing and registration functions in the city including taxis, sale of alcohol, entertainment premises, trading activities gaming activities and sports grounds.

Pest Control - provides a treatment service to all residents and businesses. In most cases a charge is levied to cover costs when treating for pests. Pest identification and advice is provided free of charge.

Environmental Health & Trading Standards

Environmental health and trading standards aim to protect residents and our environment from pollution and other public health and safety hazards, to protect residents and local businesses from unfair and unsafe practices and to promote healthy living in the city.

The team enforce, and give advice on, a wide range of legislation including food safety and standards, animal health, occupational health and safety, trading standards and environmental nuisances (including noise). They also assess the environmental impact of planning applications, monitor air quality and contaminated land and provide a consumer advice and dog warden service.

Neighbourhood Pride Unit

Street Environment Service - This service monitors, assesses and makes improvements to the street environment by dealing with a range of issues including graffiti, fly-posting, dumped rubbish, litter, private drainage and fly-tipping. The service has proactive, reactive and enforcement roles, including the enforcement of littering, rubbish presentation, fly-posting, fly-tipping amongst others.

Neighbourhood Management - This service aim is to increase the improve local democracy, participation and involvement in the local decision making process and influence over service delivery by the council, through the use of ward committees, residents associations, community groups, tenants groups and leaseholders. The service also aims to work with community groups and develop their potential. The team manages or assists with the management of 4 community centres; services 18 ward committees and 20 residents associations and manages the relationship and interface with Parish Councils of which there are 31.

Waste Services

Waste Services - carries out domestic refuse collection from over 83,000 properties within the city, operating a variety of collection systems and recycling collections of glass, paper, cans and plastic bottles from over 68,000 properties. It also undertakes commercial waste collections from 2,500 business premises.

Cleaning Unit - provides cleaning services to schools, council buildings, the clearance of council houses awaiting re-letting and the cleaning and attendance of public toilets.

Street Scene

Street sweeping and grounds maintenance - responsible for carrying out the cleansing of the city’s streets, housing, parks and open land. This includes: the emptying of litter and dog litter bins; the maintenance, mowing and planting of the many grass verges/flower beds throughout the city and the removal of detritus. It also provides attendants for the city’s parks.

Building Maintenance

The Building Maintenance Unit carries out general housing repairs, gas servicing and electrical work. In all, around 50,000 repairs are carried out every year for a wide variety of customers both inside and external to the council.

It also carries out work in other council buildings, such as schools and libraries and has a significant amount of work with other public bodies, such as housing associations.

Civil Engineering

Highways - carries out small and medium repairs to highways and footpaths, including pothole repairs and smaller improvements, such as dropped and tactile kerbs and footpath reconstruction.

Ancient monuments team - carries out repairs to the city walls and monuments.

Blacksmiths/metalworkers - undertakes repairs to street furniture, street nameplates, fabricates gates and railings for council properties and repairs to council vehicles.

Drainage - services include: highway gully cleaning, household drainage clearance, tree root cutting, maintenance of the river Foss and steam cleaning of brickwork /masonry. See our 24 hour drainage service.

Emergency response - includes winter gritting or snow clearance problems, flooding, gas explosions, road traffic accidents and structural collapses.

Safer York Partnership

The role of Safer York Partnership is to help and encourage partner agencies and every organisation and individual in the community of York to work together to reduce crime and the fear of crime, and make York a safer place for everyone.