A FOUL-MOUTHED Fife Council worker has been rapped by bosses after displaying a "terrible" attitude towards a tenant.

He arrived to carry out a repair but "appeared to be in a foul mood", swore repeatedly and made her feel so uncomfortable she asked him several times to leave her home, but he "ignored her".

The South and West Fife area committee heard that the incident happened in their patch and a complaint about the unnamed employee was upheld and an apology offered by the council.

A report said the worker had refused to give ID – saying "I drive a council van" – and the tenant "actually felt uncomfortable around him as his mood and attitude were terrible".

He took more than an hour to fix the flush on the toilet "whilst swearing and cussing to himself".

Asked for a rough estimate on how long it would take, he told her: "It's not a five-minute job like you think."

The report added: "She asked him then to leave the house multiple times but he just ignored her.

"He used one of her mats and a towel to clean up a flood he created, which he did not mention to the tenant.

"She found the mess once he left, the floor was soaked.

"The tenant isn't so much bothered about the time taken, but his attitude was terrible."

The council agreed and the tradesperson was "spoken to about attitudes and behaviours". An alternative plumber was also provided.

It was one of 202 complaints relating to the South West Fife area, which includes Rosyth, Inverkeithing, Dalgety Bay and the West Fife villages, received by the council in 2021-22.

They included bins not being collected, poor communications, potholes, bullying in schools, dispute with neighbours, standard of workmanship, time taken to answer calls, system failure, street lights and unacceptable standard of care.

There were also gripes about fencing, parking, noise, waiting times, gritting, flooding, pets and animals, untidy gardens and inappropriate staff attitude/behaviour.

Councillors were told of another complaint that was upheld, relating to the council not picking up a brown bin in South West Fife, which was captured on CCTV.

The resident said: "I used your webchat service and explained to the assistant that the lorry had been round and emptied next door but completely missed ours, never even looked at it.

"I said this had just happened and if she contacted the driver, they could pop back and correct this situation."

Told that the driver couldn't be contacted, he continued: "In this day and age of mobile phones etc I find it hard to believe that no contact can be made.

"As a taxpayer and concerned climate person, I would like to make this an official complaint, I feel the online assistant could not be bothered to contact the office who deals with the bin collection and generally fobbed me off."

As well as upholding the complaint, an apology was offered and workers returned and serviced the bin. The address was also put "on close monitor".

Councillors were told that there were good examples where customer feedback helped the council make service improvements and that 66 per cent were satisfied with the way their complaint was dealt with.

As a whole, Fife Council received 2,610 complaints last year.