Swindon Borough Council Reviews

Useless council. Tried to call for an hour and a half but kept getting cut off. They are more interested in their own self image than looking after residents.

First after registered for new council I didn't receive any for first 2 months and had to complain then
I received 4 times council bill.... every time with different amount (lack of competence)
I'm not surprise council so expensive if they have problem with such a basic math and have to send so many bills.
Not even mention customer service when i went to cancel parking permit ... shocking !!!

Intimidating, Unhelpful and no lack of empathy to anyone.

This pace is a total mightmare. The waiting times are a Joke and when you do get to see someone they are so bloody rude and talk down to you.

If I m wrong I apologise but as we re given the option of having visitors residents parking permits at a fixed rate each year how come I don t appear to be able to order more than one book at a time and repeating all details for each book of permits separately?? Seems ridiculous to me unless I m being stupid !

I had an appointment to repair to my toilet all day job 8 to 4 no one as turn up not very happy abt disgusting

Could be better but it is what it is
If you call them, don't be rude. They'll hang up on you and you'll have to wait another 30 minutes to get through. Trust me, I used to work there and I hung up on anyone who was even the slightest bit rude :-) very funny to make people wait if they want to talk to you badly

Never answer their phones, when they do it's a 40 minute wait. They don't carry out the necessary repairs on their properties they bodge job them every time. Awful.

Mainly useless service, quick to take your council tax not so quick in providing actual service.

The log in services are poor, you would expect your council tax number to be available on your log in so that you can pay council tax online or at least using the links after you have logged in will recognise your personal details but no. I think they cause themselves more problems with the inefficient IT department.

Rang 5 mins ago to report outside drain smelling and coming back into my kitchen and the lady/man that answered my call was bloody rude. Seriously she or he got poor phone manners. Very poor

Clueless in how to improve the town and wasted millions in useless ideas. They introduced parish councils throughout the borough which nobody wanted and council tax increased more because of this. If we didn't have Swindon Council this town would be a great place.

I would not click even one but no options.. I don't know council checking this reviews or not because 1.3 is very low means no one setisfied. We are paying them for services which they are not able to provide so why are we paying? We can More

Incredibly the worse!!!!! They don't do anything properly!! Fed up calling and being put on to the nightmare of their voicemail which they never will call you back in reality even after 3 months.
Rubbish, the letter they sent to my home address is the only undelivered post since now, while every body's letter reach me from anywhere around the world.
Seriously are there any one working sincerely here???

Incompetent, lacking real commitment to solving problems and generally poor service (apart from their planning and building control department, who are actually very good). A council fence boarders my property which needs repairing. It will take two weeks for them to look at it, and a further six weeks to get round to it. I could do it in half a day but they won t cover the cost!

Also, I pay all this council tax and they can t even sort out a decent waste disposal department. I m fed up of such a poorly performing local authority. Council tax goes up every year, yet their level of service gets worse. Throwing money at is clearly isn t working. The council needs a major overhaul.

3 June 2020
Refused to collect my paper recycling, because it wasn't in a recycling box but on top of a full recycling box. Pathetic!


Old review-
It took 40 mins to see someone, only 2 tills open. All I had to do was to transfer my permit to a new car. Ridiculous!!

I've only lived in Swindon since July 2019 and have noticed poor management of bin/recycling collection. For two weeks in a row my recycling bin was not collected EVEN though the recycling bin is right outside my front door. There were no reason as to why they wouldn't collect it either.

I contacted them about it today and they closed my query because they can't collect it now that I complained to them a week later.

Been trying for the last 5 years to get a dangerous slip hazard sorted outside our front gate, every year they say they will sort it very year they don't. Pathetic does someone have to be injured and sue them before they take notce

Stopped paying for garden collection. Always missing and so time consuming keep chasing them up for a service that you pay for. Absolute Joke!!!!!

No point having a self serve....I need face to face talk...unable....service and help is bollock....

Constantly experiencing a high volume of calls apparently, perhaps you need more people to answer them, feel sorry for the poor staff who have to try and get through them all in a day.

Appalling service! I am simply trying to renew my car parking permit for Lydiard Park.
1 It is not possible to pay online, unlike most other services.
2. The required form is virtually impossible to locate on the council website.
3. The form needs to be printed out, posted and then a council employee will telephone you to take payment. What a ridiculous system. I wonder how far Amazon would have got if they had adopted such an inefficient system!
4. When trying to return the missed call from the council I have been on hold on several occasions for over an hour.
This should be a trivial 2 minute process. Please sort it out.
Whilst holding, I attempted to lodge a complaint, but lo and behold the complaints system also failed - probably inundated with requests!

0/5

They don t answer phone calls, don t respond to emails, they don t care!

They missed a whole street bin collection, been trying to report the issue for 4 days and have had no response it s disgusting!

Shocked to discover none of my recycling was taken away this morning just because a few items in there werent recyclable!! Rang up to ask for a recollection and thats not available. Advice was just to wait another 2 weeks!! Not happy with the service at all!!

How do you give no stars?

Dire council, need to hand over to a private enterprise.

I won my tribunal against them for using the bus lane to avoid an accident. made an oversite, and think they can get away with violations, you do something to avoid an accident, they issue a fine not cancelling they are violating the equality act and suddenly no available. No apology no nothing. HOW DARE THEY

the people that take the calls are called Analyst! really? Customer Service Help Desk not Analyst I agree wit the first 4 letters!!!!!!

What gives the council the right to effectively fly tip a large pile of rubbish bags half way along Deburgh street. It is blocking access to be able to use mobility scooter. Had a member of the public done it they would be the first to make an issue but of it
GET THEM MOVED.

Absolute lowest of the low. Words I'd use to describe this council aren't allowed to be posted here.

The new roundabout layout near Swindon outlet has been poorly designed and creates unnecessary traffic jams. It has proven dangerous as many people end up in the wrong lanes and it was much better as it was before. Whoever designed this roundabout needs to be sacked ASAP.

Can't get them to ever answer the phone about a missed rubbish collection.
Service has been getting worst over the last couple of years but now it's ridiculous.
They just want you to do everything online.

the message every 4 rings drives me nuts..they say there getting a lot of calls there not..they say there sorry there not..get more people to answer the phone

Warning.. Swindon council have a honeypot charging people who easily mistakenly drive into a bus lane in Penzance Drive with no way to back out trying to get to the car park next to Swindon designer outlet.. i just got fined.

just spoken with council - asked for something to be e-mailed to me to be told 'sorry we cant send e-mails'......me......why's that?...... them.....e-mail isnt our department !!! WOW.....its 2019 and our local authority cant send e-mails ........................:-)

As a relatively new resident to Swindon I am truly shocked at the scruffy appearance of the town. Street cleaning seems non existent, the roads are in a poor state, under growth not cut back. It seems the Council appear to be unable to cope with the most basic of service provision

I pay them for green bin collection. They sent me a black bin with a green lid and their men ignore it. I get no email replies from them about this. Useless so and sos.

Really poor recycling provision.
No food recycling and no tetrapak provision, even though the tip at Purton accepts them.

Paying 2k a year council tax and they can't even answer the phone . Rubbish service

Being put on hold too long on calling, can't make payments online due to SBC issues often. Repairs take two visits from the repairs team that take approx 4 weeks to get sorted at times on issues that are urgent. Sort it out please.

My Council Tax is a real mess. The Council appear to bend the rules to suit and also are short on truth. It has been going on for over 9 months and has had a serious impact on my studies and overall health. Shocking

Called about a dirty needle found outside my building took 10 mins for someone to answer to pass me onto someone else why do we pay council tax if no one answers the phone or bothers to make sure the family's in the building are safe? Wardens are just as useless can't get hold of them when they're needed

You could get a parking ticket easily. Stay away or pay little bit more for parking rather than paying 25 quid for 11 mins late.

Disgusting customer service. I would give no stars if I could...DO NOT MOVE TO SWINDON

I can tell you first hand this place is laughable and a waste of tax payers money. I was to start an external job away from this building. However, the council would still be my employer. I came to sort out and finalize employment paperwork. Receptionists had no idea who I was and took around an hour to backtrack forms and make phone calls. Taking a peek in there. My goodness, it s a bomb site. Nothing is organized and the phone was constantly ringing without being answered. Eventually I was told to go to some other offices to wait for someone to fill stuff out with me. There were two employees at their desks. Guess what? You guessed it, not doing anything! Laughing about stories and even started a paper fight. I m not even joking and that really happened. The state of their desks were the same as the receptionists. Sloppiness everywhere. There was even a file on the floor with paperwork spilled out. Eventually someone came down and we filled everything out. Useless.

Called today to speak to someone regarding a letter. Got through very quickly but their phone line was awful. After asking if I could wait in hold and be directed to someone else I was told that wasn't possible. I then ended the call and explained I would call again - ended up getting through to the same lady with an awful phone line and unable to understand anything. My enquiry wasn't resolved and your service is awful Swindon borough council. I would suggest a simple action plan is to ensure your employees have phones that can operate to a decent standard. It's not rocket science.

I have paid council tax on the dot for years. Now I have left and require a refund it takes them at least six weeks to issue a refund. Hardly a fair contract! and they wait for you to request a refund instead of sending it back automatically. I think I call this misappropriation of funds