A former councillor has complained that her efforts to help a friend with dementia are being made harder because of the council’s determination to deal with almost everything online.
Dawn Barnett, who represented Hangleton and Knoll on Brighton and Hove City Council from 2004 to 2023, said that she had tried phoning the council but couldn’t get through.
She said that a recorded message for most of the past month said that there were problems with the phones and, despite long waits, she couldn’t get through.
Mrs Barnett, 84, said that she would prefer to see someone face to face but there was no longer a public counter at Hove Town Hall.
She said: “You used to be able to go to Barts House and there was the housing team on one side and the council tax on the other.
“I’m trying to help someone get their council tax sorted out. He’s got Alzheimer’s disease.
“You can’t talk to anyone face to face. You can’t get through on the phone. They want everyone to email. Not everyone is computer literate.”
She said that she was helping someone who would not have been able to deal with the council online himself, adding: “They want details that he can’t help with because of his dementia.”
“An office worker at the council told me that they’re told they’re not to talk to anyone.
“I’m not blaming the office staff but the phone lines are only open for four hours a day.”
Mrs Barnett said that council workers had continued working from home since the coronavirus pandemic and it had made dealing with the council much harder for a lot of people, not least the elderly.
And she said that people struggled with computers for a variety of reasons including. These included loss of dexterity in the hands and fingers and loss of mental capacity.
The council’s People Overview and Scrutiny Committee agreed to set up a “task and finish group” last month to look in more depth at customer services, with a view to taking evidence and then producing a report next January.
A report to members of the committee said: “Digital exclusion remains a significant issue.
“The (council’s) Customer Experience Strategy specifically identifies digital exclusion as a key challenge, noting that some residents lack internet access, digital skills or accessible technology.
“The strategy commits the council to providing support, equipment, alternative access routes and staff training to assist digitally excluded residents.
“The (council’s) Digital, Data and Technology Strategy highlights the need to ensure all resident groups benefit from digital technology while maintaining a customer-centred approach.
“The strategy promotes digital solutions but explicitly recognises that vulnerable residents may require tailored support and alternative routes to services.”
The report asked a series of questions including: “Does the council fully understand the barriers that some groups of people face in accessing services?
“How does the council measure success in enhancing digital inclusion and reducing digital exclusion?
“What is the council’s customer service offer to people who are unable to use digital services?
“Does this offer meet the varied needs of city residents, particularly in terms of people with protected characteristics?
“How confident is the council that the shift to digital has not led to disengagement by vulnerable people who need support, particularly people with relatively easy-to-address needs that will become hard-to-address crises without intervention?
“The council has recently redesigned face-to-face support to focus resources in libraries. How successful is this initiative proving and how will it evolve?
“Is there a danger that reductions in face-to-face options mean we pick up fewer problems at an early stage?
“How accessible is our face-to-face offer for people with protected characteristics?
“Does the council have a coherent position on phone services?
“A significant percentage of local people may be able to use digital services but are reluctant users – because they have limited digital skills or access, would rather talk face-to-face, because they believe council digital services are poorly designed, etc.
“What is the council doing to encourage digital use by the digitally reluctant?
“What is the council doing to ensure that customer experience of digital services is a positive one?
“How is the council managing reputational risk associated with negative customer experience of digital services?”
Mrs Barnett said that the council should remember who paid for services and wages through their taxes and do a better job of helping residents when they just needed to thrash out a problem.
She added: “You try to do the right thing but you can’t speak to a soul.”
Councillor Jacob Allen, the council’s cabinet member for customer services, public realm and local government reorganisation, said: “I was sorry to read about the difficulties Dawn Barnett has experienced while trying to help her friend, who suffers from Alzheimer’s.
“People must be able to access council services and, as a Labour administration, we take our responsibilities on accessibility and equality seriously.
“However, her claim that ‘you can’t talk to anyone face to face’ and ‘you can’t get through on the phone’ is simply not accurate.
“Between July 2025 and March 2026, the council received 269,143 phone calls, with an average wait of six minutes and 16 seconds.
“We recognise that council tax waiting times have recently been higher than we would like and work is under way to clear outstanding queries and return to our target of answering calls within 10 minutes.
“We have protected face-to-face customer service access under this administration. Our help desks have supported more than 2,500 customers so far this year.
“Hove Town Hall continues to provide face-to-face support for housing issues while general inquiries can be dealt with near by at Hove Library or alternatively at Jubilee Library following the closure of Barts House.
“This is in the important context that the way residents contact the council has changed drastically in recent years. Digital contact has risen from 36 per cent of all contact in 2018 to 76 per cent in 2025 so it is right that we reflect that shift in how we allocate resources from the public purse.
“The council’s own research shows that while 68 per cent of those who receive face to face support confirmed they had no barriers to using other avenues of receiving a response from council services, 25 per cent were unable to use digital systems, 3 per cent faced a language barrier and 4 per cent faced a disability barrier.
“My vision is to provide services that are easy to access and designed around the needs of our customers. We will be technology-first but not technology-only.
“Face-to-face support will be focused where it adds the greatest value and can have the most impact. That is why the council’s People Overview and Scrutiny Committee has established a task and finish group to review customer access and ensure technology supports better services without excluding those who need additional help.
“I would encourage Mrs Barnett to contact her councillors in Hangleton and Knoll or me directly and we will do everything we can to help resolve her friend’s issue.
“Digital exclusion is a risk every modern organisation has to address and we do not want anyone to be prevented from accessing any of the hundreds of services Brighton and Hove City Council provides.
“Residents expect a modern council which makes the most of technology but which is there on the phone and face to face for people who need that support. That is the service we are providing to our city.”
I volunteer at the libraries where people can receive help to access computers.
Appreciate that won’t necessarily help everyone mentioned in this article but it is quite a successful scheme.
Pity the councils response didn’t specially mention this!
Really good point, and should be advertised. Same with community spaces, volunteers will always support residents contact services and advocate on their behalf. I hope the T&F group note the value these provide.
There are almost certainly numerous people who don’t want help to access a computer because an issue could be resolved more quickly face to face or over the phone. Whenever I have tried calling the council, I have given up or I’ve been put through to a full voicemail so can’t even leave a message. It’s incredibly frustrating and leaves me with the impression that everything is set up for the convenience of the council rather than those who pay their council tax and use their services.
Anyone else remember when the council worked for the people? A dim memory for some.
This council couldn’t care less about residents with disabilities and has turned from public servant into traitor and tyrant to its residents. Roll on the next Labour Councillor resignations, I say. They are now officially fire fighting at the top.
PS; While cutting and closing essential council services owing to lack of money the council are spending millions on digital boot camps for staff and multiple systems and programmes that no one asked them to procure in the name of digitising all services.. some of which systems are destined to be scrapped in a few short years.
In turn all this digitisation will require the continuing ereaction of vast data centres which use vast amounts of pure water massively outstripping what we need for the daily use every man, woman and child in this country.
Essential services can’t be closed by the very nature of being essential, James. Otherwise they wouldn’t be essential!