THE ISLAND Council has acknowledged that it needs to improve how it deals with members of the public following a survey into Islanders' attitudes to the authority.

The survey revealed that 87 per cent of those who took part felt they were treated in the right way by staff "sometimes" or "always" but 80 per cent said that council communications could be improved.

Sixty per cent of Islanders knew who their councillor was and 53 per cent managed to get hold of the right council officer first time.

Mike Fisher, head of paid service, acknowledged that performance needed to be improved substantially.

He said: "The council needs a consistent approach to customer relations if we are to achieve the high levels of customer care we all want.

"It is clear that the way in which we treat callers is usually courteous and helpful but many people feel frustrated at being passed from one place to another, or don't know where to go in the first place."

Councillor Andy Sutton, lead councillor on the authority's Connecting with the Public review, said it was equally important that the public should get the same standard of responses when questioning councillors.

Public suggestions included:

There should be a helpline to appeal if there is no response

There should be regular questionnaires about council services in the local media

All queries should be given a unique reference number, and the way they are dealt with should be monitored

Mr Fisher added: "The council has undertaken this review because it was becoming clear that our customer care approach was not consistent across all our services."

He added: "I am very hopeful that the outcome of the review will produce a significant improvement for those who do contact the council in the future."