A disabled Fife man has received an apology after Fife Council left him for nearly three weeks with an unfinished bathroom.
Fred Laing, from Kinglassie, had given up hope of ever getting through to a staff member on the phone in a bid to sort the problem.
He described the service he received as very poor as he repeatedly tried to speak to a human voice over several days.
The 67-year-old has had two strokes and a heart attack so had a wet room installed in his council house to replace his bathroom.
However, the work was left incomplete until we highlighted his distress.
Fred said he had become more and more frustrated and angry as he tried for up to 40 minutes at a time to get someone on the phone to ask what was going on.
“I feel like I’ve been left without a voice,” he said.
A worker finally turned up on Monday to fix holes round the bathroom door and a large hole in his bedroom wall, which was damaged during the installation.
The ceiling also still needs to be plastered.
“They were good workers but you shouldn’t be left this long without being told what’s going to be done,” said Fred.
He added: “I’ve phoned and phoned every day and I’ve hung on for 35 minutes at a time with no answer.”
Service manager Allan Barclay apologised for the service Mr Laing received.
“I’m really sorry that Mr Laing’s experience has been disappointing and we’ll do our best to rectify this,” he said.
“We are working in his house today to make sure all the repairs are completed as quickly as possible.”
Less than half of calls were answered
Meanwhile, Fred is far from the only one to fail to get an answer.
New figures have revealed just 47% of calls to Fife Council’s repairs line were answered last week.
And only 54% of people who called with queries to the general contact centre number received an answer.
Fife Council has issued a separate apology for the phone situation and pledged to bring in eight more staff over the next three weeks.
In addition some contact centre staff have been diverted to the repairs line to support colleagues there.
The figures that emerged over the weekend have prompted a call for an urgent report to be brought forward for scrutiny.
Liberal Democrat councillor Tim Brett, convener of the local authority’s finance scrutiny committee, branded the situation serious and said: “It clearly shows the council in a very poor light.”
Mr Brett said he had been aware of problems for several weeks.
The council’s contact centre staff were working from home throughout the pandemic and were also drafted in to make “test and protect” calls on behalf of the Scottish Government.
In addition, there is a backlog in housing repairs as the service was closed during lockdown.
“There has been an increase in demand but I’ve been concerned about the performance of the contact centre in previous years,” said Mr Brett.
“For many people, it’s still the way of contacting the council and this is pretty serious in my view.
“The problem is, it can’t be fixed quickly.”
He added: “I have asked if an urgent report can come before the scrutiny committee next Tuesday.”