Brighton & Hove City Council Reviews 

Can't get in touch with Brighton & Hove council. They were awful when I purchased a flat here in 2002 and they haven't changed.

I have years of experience with councils all over the UK but B&H are definitely the worst of the bunch.

Their reluctance to accept phone calls from tax payers is shocking.

words cannot express my disgust for these bunch of clowns.

they told me in Jan 2021 that I dont pay council tax for March and February. Never contacted me to say i needed to pay anything else as i moved out of Brighton in the summer, I then get emails nearly a YEAR later saying I owe them money.

I ask them kindly when the money is due from, no reply.

I ask them to PHONE ME to discuss it - no reply.

you wont be able to speak to anyone from Brighton and Hove council because they are too scared to face THEIR OWN citizens.

all you will ever get from them is nasty letters, i think the last few i got were threatening court

so you cant argue anything even if you have a case, and you cant win, just pay them your money and shut up about it. In the end I had no other choice

Brighton and Hove Council ladies and gents...

What a horrible and nasty council, they seem to live in their own " green party world ", saying they're doing things for the environment, well all you're really doing is taking money off of innocent people, suffice to say I will never visit your horrible city again , bus gates , what a criminal activity that is , £70 for a simple , innocent error, get lost Brighton !!
And 96% of Trust Pilot reviews for Brighton council are 1 star, even local residents are giving 1 star, the problem with this council along with most other big city councils is they like to change things and if local residents or visiting tourists don't like the changes then tough, they will just fine you, councillors are meant to be encouraging tourists to sea side towns not upsetting them, this country is a wonderful country , sadly it's run by nasty and horrible , self indulging people that treat us all like medieval peasants !!!

Terrible! Had a bloke come over on Christmas day to sort out a leak that might have been caused by water going down the side of the bath and the prat peeled the sealant even more so now we have to be careful when using the bath in case more water leaks. You would think that the council would know what their doing, clearly not.

First of all there is no one you can visit and talk to in person at Bartholomew House in Brighton, except a couple of utterly useless and rude receptionist. What a waste of building space.

Second of all if you happened to call the phoneline, you will have to wait 40+ minutes for someone to answer just to be rude yet again and send you to an automated phoneline because "we have all the tools to do it online". Yet again the automated system is absolutely useless and clunky.

And for all these people who are being rude to residents on the phone or in person and directing everyone to do their business online, I only wish that they will be all replaced by an automated system very soon and end up on the streets. Just like they wished their customers to do their business online instead of doing their actual job.

Absolutely useless in regards to sorting out council tax payments, overcharging members of the household and completely disregarding other members student status.

Visited Brighton and stayed at the premier Inn, we parked behind the premier Inn as it was the only car park we could see and obviously thought that was where we would have to park for our over night stay, only to be told that we would have to park further up to benefit from premier inns parking discount. We checked in and moved our car to the other car park, we had only been parked there for about 2/3 hours and was charged £14 parking charge and then a further £14 parking charge at the right car park for the parking discount, which would of cost almost £30 without the discount from premier Inn. We also parked in ncp car park to do a bit of shopping for a few hours and was charged £6 parking.
We also mistakenly drove down a bus lane (which was not sign posted very well and coming from a small town we were unaware that there was roads for buses only) we were trying to find parking for the premier inn.
We got home and have had a letter from Brighton council fining us a further £35 for mistakenly driving down a bus only lane.
Brighton council have had a lot of money from us, (£70 in parking and fine) bloody disgusting. We definitely won't be visiting again. Worst experience!! This was a trip for our granddaughters 13th birthday

A building company broke guidelines and did non urgent pavement works in the dark at 7am on a quiet residential street. The council fobbed me off with an incorrect phone number for complaints and then just ignored polite messages for the right person to get in touch with.

I recently bought a new car. I have existing, months to run, Residents' and Traders' Parking Permits. All that was needed was to change the registration. The documentation required was already in place as I had neither changed my name, my address or my business. I spent 5hrs trying to screenshot, upload & download several various documents and was charged £4 (why?). I received an email the next day informing me I was missing a "Statement of Fact" so no permits could be issued (even though they had emailed to say one "was in the post"). Having no idea what this was, I had to ring the Parking Office: apparently it is the Motor Insurance Schedule, very clearly called that by the Insurer. I asked why the Council had used a different term, but there was no answer given, presumably because someone just made it up. I was also told the Traders'Permit was "on a different system" and could not be changed in the same way as the Resident Permit. I was not told how I would be able to do it.
I am educated, computer literate and able to explain my case. I have a mobile phone and a laptop and I couldn't navigate the website to successfully change a vehicle registration.
The DVLA & my motor insurance company involved 2 phone calls of 5 mins. The Council website MUST be made more accessible and the user MUST stop being blamed for the inability to operate it.
I consider it discrimination of the highest possible degree.

Left in huge debt my ex tenant for council tax and the council did not care just threatened and bullied. Emails ignored, can't talk on the phone to a real person, council members sexist and rude, just overall a really pathetic example of a business. Would give 0 stars if possible.

Make sure you use an up to date satnav to exit the city - the new bus lanes are a cash cow for the council.

If anyone has the misfortune to need those in power at the city council sen team I feel for you they neglect their duty of care do not care about sen children and the managers in particular is laughable at how they are in the job they should be no where near anyone let alone vulnerable children I cant stand anyone from that team they are beyond incompetent and should be ashamed of themselves

My father received a parking ticket and I appealed it with evidence to present that he wasn’t in breach. They declined appeal stating insufficient evidence with appeal instructions that don’t even work on their websites. This leaves you with no option but to pay and no alternative to defend your ticket. I submitted evidence which your adjudicator didn’t even check. Please review your processes and stop making people suffer at times of inflation and cost of living going up, you should support your community. I hope someone can do something about this or at least provide a point of contact for someone to help. If their is a legal service that can aid with this issue please get in touch as I took all the necessary steps to get in touch with someone and they (council) simply don’t even care.

I have just had the worst experience with this Council. Trying to confirm dates over Council tax was a nightmare. Emails sent in, hours waiting on telephone lines that constantly tell you they have reached the maximum number of callers. When you speak to someone, they tell you they will look into it which doesn't happen resulting in a court summons. The people you talk to a rude and you can only talk to them between 9.30am and 1.30pm. What an utterly frustrating process it was to get the issue sorted.

This beautiful town is being wrecked by an authority who have lost a grip that they are their to work for the benefit of its citizens. Instead, they prey on the residents in all manner of abusive communications demanding payment and responses in specific timescales. Meanwhile, they are impossible to contact. Three different attempts to get in touch with the council have been totally ignored (including one offer of help). Lazy and shiftless, my long held views are starting to crumble, this organisation needs to be privatised, the service couldn't be any worse and at least we would see a reduction in waste, cost and inefficencies.

Brighton in itself was nice to visit as a tourist, but bus lane cameras are a honey trap for tourist and locals alike, inadequate advance warning and crossed the line making it iimpossible to back out.. and on the road marking are next to impossible to read in wet weather!! Expecting a fine in the post.. sad that tarnished my visit…

The worst website I have ever had the misfortune to use. Completely ineffectual. Unfortunately as a captive audience Brighton residents do not have an alternative to this shambles of administration! 0 stars should be an option

Brighton a great place to visit just a shame the council are so poor with the charging points for the electric cars are all out of service. Definitely don’t recommend visiting this lovely place in a electric car.

I've never in my life come across such a badly managed company. Every dealing with them is incredibly painful. You call, wait for and hour - you all of a sudden get disconnected.
You call, someone finally picks up - they put you on hold to look at something but instead you get disconnected.
You finally manage to speak to someone and think you managed to get somewhere but all that you just arranged falls on death ears and have to repeat this entire procedure about 5-6 times to actually succeed.
This is EVERY TIME! Nothing ever got done smoothly as it should've in years of dealing with them. No matter what i'm trying to sort out -council tax, parking it's all the same, embarrassingly bad service.
Makers me want to move county so don't have to deal with Brighton and Hove Council ever again.

Brighton and Hove housing repairs are no longer fit for purpose.The new system is a farce,the left hand not knowing what the right is doing, overly complicated,bring back something closer to the old mears system.This current one is a joke,one star is generous I would give minus one if allowed.