A mum who complained to Gwynedd Council after her son was registered as female on his birth certificate was asked to pay for a new one.

She and her partner didn’t noticed the administrative blunder until they got home. She phoned Gwynedd to explain but was told she would have to pay for another certificate with the correct gender.

She said she “did not feel this was fair as she was not responsible,” a council report stated.

The matter was resolved with a team leader apologising and arranging for a new certificate.

The council noted the complaint and lessons learned as part of efforts to improve its service, stating it was “very important” to check all details were correct at all times.

The complaint was one of many discussed in the council’s complaints and service improvement annual report for 2024/2025.

A woman complained over the lack of response following a fall her mother had near a school, resulting in injury and hospitalisation.

They “didn’t want anyone else to fall and be injured due to the situation,” the report said.

The service head wished her mother a speedy recovery, apologised for the delay, ensured work was completed and her damages claim sent to the insurance team.

A pregnant mother with a child complained she was allocated an “unsuitable property” on a top floor. It was acknowledged the customer’s situation had changed and she was moved to a ground floor flat.

The report documented everything from housing gripes to missed bin collections, and was presented during Cabinet on 8 July.

Figures showed there were fewer valid formal complaints, but a higher number of Ombudsman complaints.

There were 106 complaints in total between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025, with 61 as valid formal, and 45, Ombudsman.

The average number of days to respond was 17.7.

This was compared to the same date period, in 2023/24, when there had been a total of 123 complaints, 89 had been valid formal and 34, Ombudsman.

The average number of days to respond was 14.4.

The stats also pointed to a higher number of issues coming in the areas of planning (20.8 per cent), housing (14.2 per cent) revenue (14.2 per cent) and waste (12 per cent).

Despite this, thanks and compliments from the public increased, with 1,437 received since 2015.

The main message, the report said, was there were fewer upheld formal complaints this year, although more Ombudsman complaints in 2024/2025, compared to the same period in 2023/2024.

The pattern/trend over a longer period showed the number of formal complaints reduced gradually between 2018/2019 and 2021/2022 when it increased significantly.

However, recent improvements, cabinet heard, were due to “a change in culture” in how most services accepted complaints in a “more positive and constructive way”, and used them as a means to” learn and improve the services”.

However, response times to deal with issues had increased.