Renfrewshire Council dealt with 11,805 complaints during 2025/26 as the number of cases continued to rise.
The figures were presented to the council’s Audit, Risk and Scrutiny Board on Monday 21st September 2026.
The total increased by 892 from 10,913 in 2024/25. The council dealt with 10,025 complaints in 2023/24.
More than three-quarters of frontline complaints were upheld. The proportion increased from 71.6% in 2024/25 to 77.5% in 2025/26.
Environment, Housing and Infrastructure handled 10,759 complaints, representing 91.1% of all cases recorded during the year.
However, a table elsewhere in the same report gives the Environment, Housing and Infrastructure total as 10,754.
Waste services generated 7,337 complaints. Responsive Repairs accounted for 1,167, followed by 866 concerning StreetScene and Land Services, 600 about Building Services and 369 involving Roads and Transportation.
The council said the waste complaints represented around 0.1% of approximately 7.54million bin collections.
The report linked those Waste Services cases to bin collections but did not break the 7,337 complaints down into missed bins, assisted collections or other waste issues.
Lindsay Hepburn, senior manager for neighbourhood services, told councillors that the service currently receives around 30 to 40 missed-bin reports each day.
Before recent improvement work, around 30% of these reports concerned assisted collections for residents who require help moving their bins.
The council appointed a dedicated officer to examine repeated problems with assisted collections. Crews received further training and new routing software was introduced.
Officers said provisional figures covering the first four months of the work showed complaints about assisted collections had fallen by around 20%.
A table in the report showed Children’s Services complaints increasing from 188 to 349. However, another section of the same report said the service dealt with 363 complaints during 2025/26.
Officers said the increase was partly because the central complaints system had been tested in some schools, leading to more cases being formally recorded.
Complaints handled directly by schools and early years establishments are not yet fully included in the council’s figures.
Despite the increased volume, response times improved.
The average time taken to answer a frontline complaint fell from 8.1 working days to 5.8 days. The target is five working days.
The average response time for more complex investigation complaints fell from 23.1 days to 15.7 days, within the 20-day target.
Around 76.6% of frontline complaints and 79.5% of investigation complaints were completed within their target timescales.
The council received 1,698 Freedom of Information requests and 9,398 elected member enquiries during 2025/26. Performance was above target in both areas.
The Audit, Risk and Scrutiny Board noted the complaints report.
Renfrewshire Council’s five most complained-about reasons in 2025/26:
| Service | Complaints |
|---|---|
| Waste Services | 7,337 |
| Responsive Repairs | 1,167 |
| StreetScene and Land Services | 866 |
| Building Services | 600 |
| Roads and Transportation | 369 |
Kayleigh Dyer the extra 800 odd was us
RDC are totally incompetent. Took them over five years to fix a leak, they never got it worked out, eventually it was fixed by CGC. RDC workers spend more time skiving in their vans and there meant to finish at 4pm. But there is certain streets (which will remain nameless) you’ll find them hiding from 2.45pm on wards. I could go on but i won’t. Think most people in Renfrewshire know how useless. Even the great people at Team Up To Clean Up are doing council work trying to keep our streets clean. If it was left to RDC the rubbish would be piling up.
Why should they voice surprise at the increase in complaints, if they actually did the job right through first time the council tax payer would not have reason to complain. Adopt the old moto “Right First Time” let’s see how that goes.
Haha completely useless, cant even take bins out! Why do we pay you idiots!
Kayleigh Dyer the extra 800 odd was us
This new bin service has just started and already they have missed my bins twice this week
They leave more mess behind them shocking service they open bin sheds that ar kept closed but binmen come drag the bin out then put it bk any old way leave doors wide open no fks given
They where all probably me , im assisted collection & I was phoning them every fortnight because at least one bin had been missed
I’ve been waiting for a green bin since march
My grey bins been sitting out on street doe a week. It will stay there.
Katrina Doyle if u phone & say they missed it they come empty it, you have to do it within 2days I think tho xx
Andrea Ennis thanks hen. Ill phone them tomorrow. Take my anger out on milly before she allows me to speak to a human xxx
Katrina Doyle fucking hate Milly!!! X