The problem-solving centralised computer system for county councillors can leave problems unresolved for months on end and “is like a lottery”, a Penparcau councillor has told a meeting, and called for council members to have a more direct line to officers to deal with serious issues.

Members of the council’s, corporate resources overview and scrutiny committee discussed the performance of the CLIC council service on Wednesday, 19 July.

The all-in-one service is where issues can be reported by councillors, as well as members of the public.

Penparcau councillor Carl Worrall told committee members that issues that need solving can take months to be responded to.

“We don’t know what is going on [with CLIC] and I try to do everything myself as if we go through CLIC it doesn’t get done,” he said.

“It’s like doing the lottery and hoping your numbers come up.

“I sent out a CLIC in November about a handrail used by elderly people to get it fixed. I sent another in February and another in March for an update. I got a message in May and then one in July apologising for the delay.

“Another time I raised an issue about a slippery path. Nothing was done and then before it was dealt with someone slipped there.

“We were told if we had a problem we should send it to CLIC. I think it should be a good way to get things done but that response took 10 months

“There are some issues where we need a direct line to officers. There must be a way of councillors having a direct line to an officer to get updates.

“If the public and councillors use the same system, what is the point of councillors? It is a broken system.”

Cllr Caryl Roberts, who represents Trefeurig said: “People shouldn’t be waiting even two weeks for a handrail or slippery path. It should not come to that.

“It feels like with some departments you send an enquiry and it disappears into a black hole. Sometimes you send a query and it is closed within seconds.

“The system isn’t suitable for every query. The CLIC system and staff works brilliantly but some departments are undermining it.

“We need to use CLIC as much as possible but for certain issues we absolutely must need to be able to contact an officer to give better feedback to residents.”

Cllr Keith Evans said “CLIC is working well”, but “as a councillor, no one wants to speak to you anymore, and issues can be solved so much easier if it wasn’t like that”.

“It is vital we can reach the appropriate officers,” he added.

Aberaeron councillor Elizabeth Evans said that while it “can be literally months before we have a response”, she “finds CLIC useful because it a great way of being able to log issues”.

Committee chair Rhodri Evans said: “We all accept that CLIC itself is not a problem, its often the other links in the chain.

“If some links fail then the whole chain fails. We need to get performance indicators on departments that are slow to respond.”

Catrin MS Davies, Cabinet member, told the meeting: “We realise that CLIC is not perfect but it is improving but the staff are working very hard.”

Officers said that delays were “frustrating” and that work needs to continue on responses.

The CLIC system is an attempt at “centralising a single point of contact” for services.

Exclusively online and over the phone during the pandemic and in its aftermath, provision reopened in October 2022, initially on a three day a week basis increasing to five days a week in January.

A council report into the CLIC service said “We continue to derive benefits from the corporatisation of the customer services team with a much clearer picture of all enquiries available in a single system.

“This has allowed analysis of all the services we offer, their performance and their usage. Similarly centralising all post into one location and one team is allowing us to investigate improvements and modernise services.

“A full review of all council services and their digital maturity is also underway to allow planned development work and to support the development of a new Digital Strategy and where possible will feed improvements to support the Clic Team and MyAccount options to improve services to the public.”

Changes to the way issues were reported by councillors using a centralised system rather than reporting to officers follows “a history of councillors coming in and giving hell to officers,” Ceredigion County Council’s leader has said.

Cllr Bryan Davies made the remarks during a scrutiny committee meeting on Wednesday as councillors argued for more access to officers to deal with problems.

Cllr Davies told the meeting: “When councillors had access to officers, they were on the phone for over an hour.

“There was a history of councillors coming in and giving hell to officers and took it too far before Covid.

“When councillors had access to officers, they were on the phone for over an hour.”

Llandysul councillor Keith Evans said: “When comments are made that councillors barge into offices, they need to be sorted out, rather than penalise the 38 of us.”

Penparcau councillor Carl Worrall said: “I know Bryan [Davies, council leader] said about councillors shouting at officers.

“I don’t want to barge into offices, I just want access.”

Cllr Hugh Hughes, who represents Borth, said it was “disappointing to hear of how members may have spoken to officers in the past and we must act professionally and be held to account if we don’t”.

Members were told by officers that “we don’t want people barging into offices, but an avenue is there to talk to departments”.