Call handlers at Fife Council’s contact centre are struggling to cope with the huge demand being placed on the service, new figures show.
On average, members of the public are having to wait more than two minutes for their calls to be answered.
The figures, presented to councillors this week, show only 55% of calls were answered within the target time of 20 seconds.
The centre deals with issues including missed bin collections, potholes, street light failures and bulky uplifts.
Bosses say welfare reforms are having an impact on the workload, with queries about crisis grant applications rising by 49% year-on-year to 19,549, and community care grants rising by 16.4%.
Liberal Democrat councillor Tim Brett, who chairs Fife Council’s environment, finance and communities scrutiny committee, said too many people are having to wait too long for their calls to be answered.
“I suspect that many people give up waiting for their call to be answered and that this is something that the council needs to pay further attention to,” he said.
A performance report produced for the committee noted fewer calls were being answered and waiting times were rising.
Councillors were told contact centre managers have tried to deploy staff where the need is greatest, to ensure there is weekend cover and that all community alarm calls are answered.
Steps have also been taken to make sure the social work group is properly resourced and the Scottish Welfare Fund team is adequately supported.
This has hit the performance of the general line – the first point of contact with the local authority for many members of the public.
Head of customer and online services Diarmuid Cotter said: “The situation can at times be challenging. However, we configure our teams in the contact centre to manage calls as efficiently as possible.
“This is to ensure we can still respond quickly and effectively to our most urgent calls from vulnerable clients such as community alarm responses, health and social care or those needing crisis grants from the Scottish Welfare Fund.
“However, there is no doubt that at times there is s strain on the centre when call volumes are high.”
Mr Cotter said the council is working to make it easier for residents to carry out more business online at any time of the day or night through the refreshed Fife.Gov.uk website.
“This will be more convenient for many people as well as reducing the number of calls we need to take,” he said.
“Our new online bulk uplift service is a good example and we have had a significant take up of this. We will continue to improve the information on the website and will add more services.
“Managers will continue to monitor call volumes closely and endeavour to get things right for our customers.”
