A woman fed-up with councillors failing to return her calls instead confronted them in the council chamber.

Susan Hogg, who lives in Tovil, used a public question session to ask Maidstone councillors why they hadn't responded to her queries.

Mrs Hogg, of Beaconsfield Road, used the public question time at the last meeting of the full council to ask: "Councillors are elected by the people of Maidstone, so why do they not return my phone calls and emails when I leave them a message?"

Council leader David Burton (Con) said in response: "I genuinely think that most of us do our best to answer emails and return calls.

"There are occasions when technology lets us down and sometimes when we genuinely make mistakes.

"Beyond that, it's impossible to give you a direct answer for each individual's explanation, but we do, most of us, do our best."

Mrs Hogg responded: "Moving forward, even if councillors couldn't answer my question, wouldn't it be courteous for them to at least respond to say that they couldn't help? It would be much appreciated, rather than just being ignored."

Cllr Burton agreed: "Courtesy costs nothing."

He added: "Group leaders generally take responsibility for their members' actions, so if you don't get satisfaction from an individual, it might be worth drawing it to the attention of their group leader."

Mrs Hogg did not tell the meeting which councillors had let her down, but afterwards said: "There's only one who always answers me and that is Cllr Paul Cooper."