Brighton and Hove council complaints about phone capacity

North Portslade councillor Peter Atkinson was prompted to action after residents complained about getting through to the staff even though the customer service centres are open at Hove Town Hall and Bartholomew House in Brighton.

The Independent councillor put a call out on social media to ask people about their experiences because he had dealt with individual cases but wanted the bigger picture.

After the responses from residents, he has asked for action from Green council leader Phélim Mac Cafferty, his deputy councillor Hannah Allbrooke, whose portfolio includes customer service, and chief executive Geoff Raw.

Councillor Atkinson said: “We have a lot of older residents in North Portslade and Mile Oak who don’t access the internet and often can’t find the right number for the service they require.

“This means they have to go through the main council phone number which can sometimes be very busy.

“Telephone, however, is often the only way they can contact the council. The telephone service needs to be made much easier to use and more customer friendly. There are also residents who can use the internet but actually need to speak to someone in person.”

People told Councillor Atkinson that they struggled to reach several services and spent a long time trying to get through to

Cityclean to report missed rubbish and recycling collections the council tax helpline parking services to get parking permits the housing repairs service housing services in general officials to report the death of a council tenant.

Councillor Atkinson said that people did not understand why so few council staff had returned to public-facing roles, particularly as he believed that much of the council’s telephone infrastructure was outdated and needed upgrading.

He said: “It had apparently been very difficult when parking permits were in demand recently but has now calmed down.

“If residents have a housing need of any sort, there are telephone points there where they can speak to someone at Bartholomew House for private housing or homelessness issues or the council housing helpline at Moulsecoomb.

“I would have some concern with the Customer Service Centre’s ability to cope, however, if there is a large rise in people needing help due to the cost of living crisis.

“There are not that many staff there and they would quickly be overwhelmed. I am, however, most concerned at the potential issues with the telephony system being completely overwhelmed when winter arrives and the cold together with the cost of living crisis really begins to bite.”

The council said: “Central government funding for the council has reduced by more than £100 million over the last ten years.

“This has made it more and more difficult for us to maintain services at the level we and our residents might like to see.

“These financial pressures are becoming more extreme rather than less.

“This means we simply don’t have the resources to employ large numbers of extra customer service staff. However, we are proud of the work our team does to support our residents.

“Like virtually all other councils and businesses, we have made a big commitment to improving our digital customer service offer.

“This has enabled us to respond to an increasing volume of queries via online forms and emails.

“This has, in turn, given us the capacity to resolve things by phone when people’s needs can’t be fulfilled online.

“Face-to-face appointments remain available across all services in instances where we can’t fulfil customer need either online or via telephone.

“These customers can include people having difficulties because of disability, language barrier or digital exclusion.

“Last year and earlier this year, we had some technical problems as a result of expanding our digital response efforts.

“But our most recent data for parking shows that we are meeting the expectations laid out in our ‘customer promise’ in relation to average call waiting time and responding to digital queries.

“We are aware of the problems residents are facing with the council tax phone line and email responses. We are working towards resolving these.

“These particular problems have been caused by a large volume of extra work being put on to the service by the government’s energy rebates.

“We know from our own customer feedback analysis that a lot of dissatisfaction pre-covid was related to us being slow or inadequate in responding to emails and digital forms.

“With limited resources, we are ensuring we can provide the best support we can to those who need us the most.”

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