MORE than 33 percent of people trying to contact Newport City Council hung up in 2015 – because their calls were not answered quickly enough, it has been claimed.

The figures were released by Liberal Democrat Paul Halliday following a freedom of information request to the council, which revealed almost a third of people hung up the phone while on hold to a department, and almost 50 per cent of people gave up when calling social services.

The figures show that from January 1 to September 7, the council received 41,034 calls on its main line – 13,918 were abandoned.

Statistics also highlighted that the social services line received 5,446 calls, with 2,518 abandoned, resulting in almost half of all people ending the call before being spoken to.

Paul Halliday, who stood as the Liberal Democrat candidate for the Newport East parliamentary seat, said: “The amount of people who have contacted me complaining about long wait times at the council was very concerning, so we decided to investigate.

“We knew the figures were going to be bad, but what we discovered can only be described as horrifying, and what is most worrying is the number of people who are giving up while trying to get through to social services, a department which deals with some serious referrals.”

Residents have told the South Wales Argus how they have been left waiting more than 30 minutes for their calls to be answered.

Kirsty Fisher, a 29-year-old mother of Roman Way, Caerleon, said: “In August of this year, I was on hold to social services for over half an hour and when they finally answered my call, they spent around 30 seconds telling me to go to an information station with minimal guidance.”

Claire Chappel, 39, of Tudor Road, Newport, added: “I rang during October and was on hold for 32 minutes trying to get through to planning and was forced to listen to Fly Me to the Moon on a constant loop which when paired with the waiting time, is enough for anyone to want to hang up.”

The council says it is working to give residents the best possible experience when they call.

A Newport City Council spokesman said: “It is not possible to identify the reason why customers abandon a call, however we proactively publicise our self-service options when customers are in a queue on our telephone system.

“New processes have been introduced in line with the Social Services and Wellbeing Act 2014, which has reduced waiting times for eligible adult customers to receive assessments, with further adjustments being made to improve the service further.”