WHEREAS complaints to Fenland District Council rose by 11 per cent in the last three months of 2011 compared to a year before, the number of compliments fell dramatically by 74 per cent.

The figures were given to councillors last night who were told the three monthly numbers of complaints was 79, up by eight on the previous year. The council also took longer to respond to complaints – 87 per cent being dealt with in 10 days compared to 93 per cent the year before.

Compliments dropped to 98 from 381 and what the council describes as “comments” were just 31 compared to 293 in 2010.

Fewer people also wrote to the council under their three Cs (Complaints, Correspondence and Compliments) policy (152 compared to 288) but only 88 per cent were dealt with in 10 days compared to the previous year when 94 per cent of letters were tackled within 10 days.

Overall the numbers contacting the council fell 65 per cent, from 1,033 in the final quarter of 2010 to just 360 in the final quarter of 2011.

Since January more people than usual are calling the council following reductions in opening hours at the four one stop shops. As a result the number of calls answered within 20 seconds dropped from 79.4 per cent to 69.5 per cent.

However a survey of 300 people who used the one-stop shops revealed 97 per cent satisfaction rate.