County council officials are advising residents with a grievance that "it's best to write your complaint in your own words", as it has emerged that they are now dealing with AI-generated complaints running up to 99 pages.

Residents may well be increasingly turning to artificial intelligence (AI) to help them with the drafting of letters or complaints.

But speaking at a meeting of the council's children and families cabinet panel, complaints manager Kamaljit Bhangal said that the use of AI could actually delay the investigation of a resident's complaint.

And she highlighted advice on the use of AI that has now been published by the county council.

According to that advice, AI can "make up incorrect 'facts'", "make complaints too long or complicated" or include legal references that are "unnecessary or inaccurate".

It warns residents that it can lead to the need for further clarification and delay how quickly the council can deal with the complaint.

Instead, the advice is to focus on what happened and the impact it had, sticking to the facts – and avoiding legal wording.

"It's best to write your complaint in your own words," says the advice published on the council's website, www.hertfordshire.gov.uk

"This helps us better understand what happened and how it affected you."

After highlighting recent complaints, which ran to 38 and 99 pages, Ms Bhangal told members of the cabinet panel: "We are basically encouraging people to avoid using AI – and, where they do use it, giving them tips as to how to use it.

"Because it can actually delay us getting their complaint investigated – a) delaying investigating, b)understanding what it is.

"I mean. 99 pages. It is going to take somebody a long time to go through that and make sure we understand what the complaint is."

According to the data presented to the cabinet panel, on Wednesday (September 2), the number of complaints made to the county council about children's services in 2025/26 increased, while the number of compliments went down.

The 1,006 compliments received about children's services in 2025/26 were 172 fewer than in 2024/25. That's a drop of 14%.

Meanwhile, the number of complaints – or representations – recorded increased from 1,184 in 2024/25 to 1,422 in 2025/26. That is an increase of 20%.

According to the report, 25% of complaints were dealt with informally, with the remainder going through the council's formal complaints procedures.

But 89 complaints could not be resolved by the county council and were referred to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO).

Of those, the LGSCO identified some fault in 20 cases, which resulted in the award of compensation totalling £31,769.

In the previous 12 months (2024/25), the LGSCO found fault in 37 of 81 cases referred, which led to compensation awards totalling £91,386.

Data also showed an upward trend in the number of representations received over the past five years, which was said to have been driven by the surge in demand due to the pandemic, alongside sustained pressures in SEND services.

Commenting on the report, Ms Bhangal highlighted the higher volume of representations and complaints received.

And "positively", she said, a greater proportion of concerns were resolved informally at an early stage.

She said the number of compliments received was "marginally lower" than the previous year.

And she said the number of acknowledgements in time remained high, with overall response times "significantly better" than last year.

She acknowledged the increase in cases being referred to the LGSCO, up from 81 in 2024/25 to 89 in 2025/26.

But she said that 64% of cases no fault was found or no investigation held.

The issue of AI-generated complaints was initially raised by Cllr Miriam Swainston (Liberal Democrat, Bishop's Stortford West).

She highlighted the increase in AI-generated complaints being received by county councillors and asked whether it was impacting the service.

"Everyone seems to think they are a lawyer now, because they can use ChatGPT or whatever," she said.