Community Rail Network take complaints about our services seriously and view them as an opportunity to identify and apologise for any mistakes or inadequacies in our systems and implement improvements to our services.

Who can complain:

For your feedback to be treated as a formal complaint, you must be complaining about a specific service or support you, or someone you are representing, received from Community Rail Network, and which you consider fell below acceptable standards.

How to complain:

Complaints should be sent to info@communityrail.org.uk with the subject labelled COMPLAINT. Please email us from an email account you regularly monitor so we can reply. Please include your full name and phone number. Alternatively, if you do not have email access, write to Sarah Fatica, Head of people and funding, Community Rail Network, The Old Water Tower, St. Georges Square, Huddersfield HD1 1JF, enclosing an address we can reply to.

What to put in your complaint

Your complaint must provide full details as you understand them of what you think we didn’t do very well and why, how that affected you, and what you think we should do now, so we have all the necessary information to hand from the beginning. So, for example, if you are complaining about an aspect of a conversation you held with a Community Rail Network employee, it helps if you tell us exactly when that conversation took place and, if you remember their name, who you spoke to, what happened, and what you think should have happened.

Your complaint will be logged and stored on our secure servers. Your information will always be processed in accordance with our privacy policy, and all details that you provide us with will be kept secure and held for no longer than necessary.

How we investigate your complaint

Complaints are responded to by Community Rail Network’s head of people and funding, in consultation with relevant team leaders and our team protocols. Complaints are responded to with careful consideration of a) our existing protocols and systems and what should have happened, b) the facts of what happened and how you were affected, and c) whether there is anything we could do better in the future and what improvements we can implement.

Community Rail Network has to consider use of its resources when investigating complaints and planning any subsequent improvements. The amount of staff time we can commit to addressing any particular area of work will depend on strategic priorities and funding. For example, Community Rail Network may decide an improvement to our work is desirable but can be delayed, rather than urgent and requires attention now. This may also affect the amount of time we can engage in discussion with a complainant on any particular issue at any particular time.

When you will hear from us

Community Rail Network believes it is important to respond to complaints in a timely manner. If you are making a complaint about Community Rail Network we aim to send you a response within 10 working days. If it is not possible to respond fully within that timeframe you should receive a response within 10 working days explaining this is not possible and advising you that we require another 10 working days. In either instance, your complaint will be responded to within 20 working days. If you do not receive a response then it may be that your complaint has not been received. In that instance, please call 01484 548926.

If you are unhappy with our response

If you are not satisfied with the first response you receive, you can reply explaining why you feel our response is inappropriate and your complaint will be reconsidered within a further 20 working days in consultation with the organisation’s chief executive.