Bolton Council's customer relations have been judged as "fair" and about to improve by standards watchdogs.

The Audit Commission's inspection team has given the council's face-to-face service with the public a one-star rating.

Three stars is the highest accolade which would mean a service is "excellent," two stars is "good", one star is "fair" and no stars, the lowest, means "very poor".

The council is happy with its assessment. Inspectors gave the rating because they discovered customers find staff helpful and polite and the council has clear and ambitious aims for the future.

Commissioning inspector Brian Stevenson said: "The council has a very good track record of delivering change and improvements and had appointed a private sector partner to help develop its customer services.

"A strong improvement plan is in place, funding has been made available and many of the milestones have already been achieved."

Bolton Council's executive member for best value, Councillor Michael Kilcoyne, who is responsible for customer relations, says he is delighted with the report.

"After inspecting our improvement plans, the inspectors concluded that the service will definitely get better.

"They were impressed in particular by our track record of delivering change and improvements."

But Conservative councillor Stuart Lever disagrees. He said: "The council should not be celebrating a one-star rating, they should be aiming for three."

The council is planning to improve the way in which customers can get information and services and is set to open a contact centre later this year. THE council's key strengths were:

good contact points in area offices and housing and social services offices across the town -- and calls were answered promptly;

helpful information and support at the one-stop shop and other venues;

the Pikes Lane Primary Care Resource Centre is pleasant and spacious.

However, weaknesses included:

opening hours do not meet the needs of most working people and limited access to services;

privacy and confidentiality are inadequate in the Farnworth one-stop shop and the environment of some of the contact points needs to be improved;

waiting times for face-to-face contact varies from five to 10 minutes in Farnworth and up to two hours in the town hall benefits section;

telephone responses also varied, with some constantly engaged or having no reply.