North Ayrshire Council has received 1,813 complaints – up by 275 from the previous year.

The vast majority of gripes – 1237- related to the council’s ‘Place’ department.

Residents complaints ranged from street lighting, grass cutting, removal of the Greenwood Academy bus and missed bins among others.

Thirty seven per cent of all complaints were upheld while 18 per cent were partially upheld. 

Irvine and Kilwinning residents made the majority of the complaints – due to the higher population of the towns. 

Chief executive Elma Murray said: “North Ayrshire Council is committed to providing high quality services for North Ayrshire residents, businesses and visitors but it is recognised dissatisfaction will sometimes occur.

"When it does, we want to know what went wrong, why it went wrong and what we can do to make things right.”

Her statement in the council’s Complaint Report added: “We review our complaint handling performance regularly to ensure we learn from mistakes and use the feedback we receive to improve services the council provides.”

The council said there is a “valid reason” for the jump in complaints to 1813 between April 2017 and March 2018 – up from 1,538 the year before. 

The leap was blamed on social work issues now being included in statstics. 

A surge in school complaints has been attributed to better training in identifying problems raised.

The report said: “The 38 per cent increase in complaints for education is the result of schools being better able to identify complaints after receiving additional support and guidance from the customer complaint team throughout the year.”

The council said a rise in policy complaints was due to “the changing of the council’s flag flying protocol, the removal of a free bus service and the removal or transfer of some public conveniences.”

More than 570 compliments were also recorded praising council services during the most recent year.

The Complaints Report was presented to the council's Audit and Scrutiny Committee.