THE number of people complaining to a council dropped 30% last year.

Calderdale Council received 316 complaints. The figure is 30% lower that the 453 complaints in 2009/10.

The majority were economy or environment issues.

A further 92 formal complains were made to a head of service, down from 129 the previous year.

A report, to be presented to councillors of Monday, shows that 22 complaints took their issue to the chief executive, a reduction of 31% on the previous year.

The number of Calderdale complaints reviewed by the Local Government Ombudsman in 2010/11 rose to 29 compared to 23 the previous year, an increase of 26%. There were no findings of maladministration against the council in 2010/11 compared with two the previous year and only three local settlements were agreed compared with 10 in 2009/10.

As the Examiner reported last week, complaints against Kirklees Council rose by a fifth. There were 133 complaints against Kirklees in 2010/11 – an increase of 20% on the year before.