Council bosses say they are slower at responding to complaints because of a rise in long submissions generated using Artificial Intelligence (AI).
South Holland District Council (SHDC) is now well below its target for responding to corporate complaints within ten working days. In the first quarter of this financial year it met this benchmark in just 40 per cent of cases – down from 77 per cent in the previous quarter.
The target is to meet this timescale on 95 per cent of occasions.
The council said that 39 complaints were recorded in quarter four of 2025/26, with 30 complaints responded to within the authority’s timescale.
In quarter one of 2026/27, 65 complaints were recorded, with 26 within the authority’s timeframe.
At an SHDC cabinet meeting on Tuesday, September 29, leader Nick Worth said: “What I’m seeing is there are some enormous AI-generated complaints.
“I think most complaints a couple of years ago might have been half a page if you were lucky – and now we’re getting 20, 30 plus pages sometimes. I mean it is an issue.”
Officials said that ‘operational delays’ and availability of officers have also reduced the council’s ability to respond to corporate complaints.
The council’s current targets for responding to corporate complaints are that it acknowledges a complaint within five working days of it being received and responds to the complaint within 10 working days of the acknowledgement.
It also aims to conclude a ‘review investigation’ within 20 working days of the review request being acknowledged.
The authority said it cannot investigate complaints about an issue which took place more than 12 months ago.
South and East Lincolnshire Councils Partnership chief executive, Rob Barlow, explained that AI-generated complaints have become more complex and therefore take longer to deal with.
“What we’re finding more than ever is that you’ll get a three-four page complaint which is not specific to a property or an individual that makes reference to legislation, policy, search on our website and perhaps involves three, four, five different departments all requiring a response.”
The focus on upcoming changes to waste collections means that officer attention is on this matter – and that the missed target is not entirely down to AI.
Portfolio holder for corporate and environmental services at the council, Jim Astill, said of the waste challenges: “There is a lot of focus on trying to improve that because it has been an issue for some time, but we can strive to get better at that.”
