Rutland County Council received more complaints during the last financial year than it did over the previous 12 months but said the increase reflects an improvement in how complaints are "captured and categorised", rather than declining service quality.

Bosses said that 175 complaints were recorded over the 12-month period ending March 31 2026, up from 104 the previous year and 70 the year before that.

However, the report in which these figures were presented to council's Audit and Risk Committee at Tuesday's meeting (June 30) outlined "clearer processes and more visible routes for residents to submit complaints" as possible explanations for the uptick.

It's also possible that more service requests were channelled through the complaints system, according to the report, which may account for some of the increase. There was also feedback on the new food waste strategy, including the roll out of new small-capacity bins and the council had anticipated that a service change on this scale would be met with "some criticism".

"It's a fact that no organisation wants to feel like they're less than perfect, no organisation likes the concept of complaints," Coun Ramond Payne (Liberal Democrats – Oakham South) said at the meeting.

"However, you learn far more from dealing with a complaint than you do from the glow of a compliment. If complaints are approached as an opportunity to learn, then an organisation can use them as a positive. Sometimes the person making the complaint is going to have a damn good case."

The council logged fewer compliments over the same period – 139, down from 154 the previous year – but said it can only record compliments forwarded to the "Letusknow" feedback team, and therefore argued it is possible that more were received.