MORE people in Darlington call a new council service than any other department, according to figures.

Darlington Borough Council's Street Scene department received 28,873 calls in the first seven months of this year.

It puts it ahead of taxation (27,483), housing (24,727), development and environment (23,413) and housing and council tax benefit (16,904).

Four in five calls to the council were answered, with 18,497 abandoned calls and 4,766 directed to answerphone.

The council aims to answer 80 per cent of calls within 20 seconds.

Street Scene deals with refuse and recycling, grounds maintenance, street cleaning and parks and was launched last year

The council's neighbourhood services scrutiny committee will look at the figures next week.

The report said performance in the customer services section was initially disappointing.

The report added: "Early in 2007, the service was affected by staff turnover and long-term sickness, but a steady upturn in performance is now expected as the new staff complete their training."