A local Councillor has condemned Renfrewshire Council after they are set to cut the Council’s customer contact centre opening hours.
From Monday 16th January the opening hours will be cut by over 10 hours.
Kenny MacLaren, Councillor for Paisley North West has said. “This move to reduce the opening hours of the customer contact centre highlights Labour’s failure to provide a decent service to the public.
“One of the most common complaints I receive is the difficulty tenants have getting through to report a repair, yet Labour’s solution is to reduce the opening hours of the customer contact centre!
“Instead of addressing the problems within the contact centre, Labour are simply going to reduce access to it. This will lead to more frustration for Renfrewshire residents as they fail to get someone to talk to regarding the services provided by the council.
“It has been clear for a while that Labour are trying to force more and more residents onto using electronic communication with the council – by the use of emails and apps. Yet this is not suitable for many people who either don’t have access to these communication methods or have the ability to use them well.
“These new hours also particularly penalise residents who work during the day, as they will now have to take time off work if they need to visit the contact centre.”
The new opening hours will be Monday to Thursday, 8.45am – 4.45pm and 8.45am – 3.55pm on a Friday.
The previous opening hours were 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday.
The SNP Renfrewshire have condemned Labour’s running of the customer contact centre and claim in some cases around 20% of all calls are abandoned as callers struggle to get someone to answer their call. They also claim the average waiting times for all calls is 3 minutes and 9 seconds
The council’s own target is to answer all calls within 40 seconds. A previous council report revealed the maximum waiting time was 41 minutes and 46 seconds.