Newcastle City Council is the most complained about council in the Hunter while the Dungog and Upper Hunter councils do not bother residents at all, new figures have revealed.
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Department of Local Government figures, revealed exclusively to the Newcastle Herald, show most complaints about councils in the region centre on planning and development matters, misconduct and fines.
The top 25 complained-about councils in NSW are released annually but the specifics of complaints and figures about the other Hunter councils are rarely made public.
The data shows Dungog and Upper Hunter Councils were the most popular with ratepayers, with no complaints at all in the 2008 and 2009 financial year, while Muswellbrook had only three.
The department received 21 complaints about Newcastle City Council, which was 14th in NSW, and 16 complaints about Port Stephens.
It comes amid a furore over Cessnock Council, which was supposed to have been the subject of a large number of complaints to Cessnock MP Kerry Hickey's office in 2010.
There were just nine complaints about Cessnock Council to the Department of Local Government in 2008-2009.
Cessnock Mayor Alison Davey said she had written to Mr Hickey pointing that out.
"We did have a need for improvement but we're getting better," she said.
"We've been very diligent, we've set up processes."
Dungog Mayor Glenn Wall said their perfect record had not always been the case and the council had worked hard in the past decade to improve services and transparency.
Newcastle Lord Mayor John Tate said the council had instituted a number of reforms over the past year which he expected to see translated into better results in 2009-2010 figures.
