Over the past four financial years, the number of questions residents asked Brisbane City Council has remained relatively consistent, with data revealing that about 36,000 more queries were made in 2017-18 than 2014-15, with around 1.4 million questions asked in total.

The council has hired 260 people to staff its contact centres, where calls are answered and enquiries via social media responded to.

The centre responds to more than 3200 enquiries a day and 88 per cent of the phone calls are answered within 20 seconds.

In the 2018-19 financial year the top ten enquiries were about:

Over the past four financial years, the number of queries about wheelie bins has increased by 32.7 per cent to 91,358 a year.

The council’s field services chairman said queries about general waste had increased as the city continued to grow.

“People like to ensure their bins are in good working condition but also, if they are broken people like to ring up to have their bins replaced, be it the lid or the bin itself,” he said.

“In some instances, the bin may have been missed and that could be something as simple as a vehicle parked close to the bins so the operator couldn’t get to it.”

Questions about animal permits increased by 24.9 per cent over the four years to 73,527 and questions about parking increased 18.9 per cent to 74,860.

Cr Matic said residents often contacted the council to ask questions about parking zones and places to park as well as concerns about cars parked illegally, such as across driveways.

In the 2018-19 financial year the council also received 2692 queries about vermin control, 9897 questions about kerbside collection and 2299 residents asked about Brisbane’s CityCycle scheme.

Cr Matic said all of the information operators provided was also available on the council’s website.