COMPLAINTS about council services have jumped 26 per cent compared to last year - but bosses say that’s a good thing.

Complaints to West Dunbartonshire Council reached 805 in the 2019/20 financial year, according to a report to the audit committee.

A total of 659 of those were closed within that year, with the rest closed after April 1 this year. Three quarters of the complaints were resolved within required Scottish Public Services Ombudsman timescales, a decrease from the previous year.

Malcolm Bennie, strategic lead for communications, culture and communities, told the committee he welcomed the increase from a “lesson learned” perspective.

He said: “We believe some expressions of dissatisfaction were not being recorded. The volume was partly responsible for the delay [in resolving].”

Councillor Martin Rooney said it is good to get people putting forward complaints and seeing what can be learned from it.

Of the total complaints, 500 were about quality of service and another 136 were about timescales. Another 74 were related to employee behaviour.

Only one complaint against a member of staff was upheld after two stages, with 13 upheld for quality of service and one for timescales. In all, 16 complaints out of 805 were upheld.