Fears council tax calls will swamp Hub staff (From Worcester News)

Fears council tax calls will swamp Hub staff

11:50am Thursday 11th March 2010 in

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A COUNCIL customer service manager has admitted staff are unlikely to be able to cope with an expected rise in calls concerning council tax bills.

Rachel Hill, who is customer services manager for the Worcestershire Hub, said the posting of bills for 2010/11 in the next few weeks, would lead to an increase in calls.

The hub deals with calls and enquiries for customers of Worcester City Council, Malvern Hills District Council and Worcestershire County Council.

Although extra resources are being put in place to deal with an expected increase in calls once new council tax bills are issued, Ms Hill warned there is likely to be another dip in the hub’s performance figures in the coming months.

We have previously reported in your Worcester News how the hub has struggled to cope with demand during the recession, although recent figures have shown that about 80 per cent of calls are now being answered within the 20 second time target – a massive improvement on the 17 per cent last August.

However, operators were inundated with people calling up to renew their books when libraries closed over the Christmas period and have since been swamped with calls about potholes. As the hub only began formally operating in April it was the first festive season it had negotiated.

At Worcester City Council’s performance management budget scrutiny committee meeting, Councillor Joy Squires questioned whether the demand was anticipated.

Ms Hill said: “I think we have learned some lessons about the questions we need to ask service areas. We didn’t necessarily think through the implications of the snow and libraries closing over Christmas.

“We hadn’t necessarily thought that through in terms of local needs and what we would get on the first day we opened after the Christmas period. But every year we learn more.”

Ms Hill said an example of that is the fact she now meets on a monthly basis with Nick Jefferies, head of revenues and benefits, to discuss upcoming challenges or events that are likely to have an impact on the number of calls made to the hub.

Meanwhile, Coun Marc Bayliss questioned why information fed back to the city council on the hub’s performance was being altered.

He said he was worried that some figures which had showed up the hub’s poor performance in the past were going to “disappear”, but after listening to concerns officers agreed to include some of those statistics in future reports.

Your Worcester News was the only member of the media to attend this meeting