Conservatives want Brighton and Hove City Council to review face-to-face customer service and housing support.
At a meeting of the full council on Thursday (19 October), Councillor Carol Theobald plans to call for a return to the levels of face-to-face services that existed before the coronavirus pandemic.
It follows the council’s annual customer insight report for 2022-23 showing a customer service satisfaction rate of 59 per cent of the 5,803 people who filled in the survey.
This was up from 57 per cent of 3,192 respondents the previous year but the Conservatives said that the council should be aiming for 70 per cent satisfaction by next July.
Councillor Theobald also said that 39 per cent of respondents found council services “fairly or very difficult to access or use” – a 1 percentage point increase compared with 2021-22.
And the number of complaints went up by 25 per cent from the previous year.
Councillor Theobald said that a review should include the “best options” for the future of customer services, including the possibility of locating help points in libraries and other council-owned buildings.
Further suggestions included increasing weekday telephone operating hours until 5.30pm and opening face-to-face service points at weekends.
The customer service centres at Bartholomew House, Brighton Town Hall and Hove Town Hall are open Monday to Friday from 9am to 4.30pm, excluding bank holidays.
Conservative leader Alistair McNair raised concerns about customer service performance at the full council meeting in July last year.
He called for key services – such as housing, parking, libraries, benefits, bereavement, financial advice and rubbish and recycling – to provide a fully accessible in-person service from 9am to 5pm five days a week.
On this week’s motion, Councillor McNair said: “I know a couple in Hollingbury, one who is disabled, the other dyslexic who, when he phones up, has been told to write in. That is difficult. Physically going to the council requires a lot of effort. The hours are very limited.
“Anyone who works and would like to see someone has to take time off. Phones lines close at 1.30pm, unlike utilities. The customer has to be flexible, not the council.
“As the number of inquiries has dropped significantly along with the number being seen in person, one could reason that there is a large number of people not being reached.”
Brighton and Hove City Council is due to meet at Hove Town Hall at 4.30pm on Thursday (19 October). The meeting is scheduled to be webcast on the council’s website.
Imagine if the Seagulls started calling the Fans Customers!
Residents me thinks!
Council staff have been shirking from home ever since the start of the pandemic. It is high time the holiday was over and they were back at work, and where necessary, face to face with the local ratepayers who pay their salaries.
Face to face in many industries, whilst nice, is typically really inefficient. Someone gives a massively long rant as a comment for example, I can read the key point in 10 seconds or less. If I have to listen to it face to face, I have to waste several minutes.
I support F2F where it provides a benefit.
Did the councillors provide cost estimates for increasing telephone and weekend customer service support, along with indications in the annual budget where these funds could be drawn from? Or are we to expect they can be plucked from the magic money tree?
Get those lazy council officers back to work and serving the electorate.
We aren’t even supposed to be paying for their pensions, yet that’s where a large chunk of our council tax goes.
Be good if they could actually provide a service of any sort!!
Something to consider with surveys of this sort are the ones who are likely to fill them out are more likely to be ones with grievances, so some caution should be taken before actioning a biased data source like this.