Proposed cuts to Shropshire Council's call centre times

Plans to reduce a council's call centre hours by nearly half will free up staff to phone vulnerable residents, the authority says.

The proposals would see Shropshire Council cut the weekly hours its phone lines are open from 50 to 30.

But councillors have questioned whether people without internet access can still contact the authority.

The phone lines would remain open for those who needed them, councillor Rob Gittins said.

"We are not switching off the phone lines. We are still open, we are just altering the hours which we are open," he explained.

The change is an attempt to push more residents towards using digital services, the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) said.

The centre currently operates on weekdays from 08:00 to 18:00 GMT, and 09:00 to 13:00 GMT on Saturdays.

Consultation on the plans includes four options for the reduced service which all involve shortening the weekday times and closing completely on a Saturday.

Phone lines for specialist services such as social care or homelessness would be unaffected, Mr Gittins said.

He added a downward trend in incoming calls, from 220,000 in 2018 to 180,000 in 2022, was "something we need to encourage".

Each call costs the council about £3 compared to 15p for an online query, Mr Gittins explained.

He said it was now more important to direct staff resources towards making outbound calls to check on potentially vulnerable residents.

At a scrutiny meeting on Wednesday, councillor Julia Buckley asked whether a saving of £93,000 highlighted in a council report on the proposals would mean redundancies.

Mr Gittins told her that was not the case.

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