THE handling of out-of-hours calls to Oxford City Council by a firm in Cheshire is to be examined by councillors early in the New Year.

Astraline, based in Poynton, Cheshire, currently handles calls from people trying to contact the council outside of office hours.

Since October 2010, 3,617 calls about noise, antisocial behaviour and stray dogs have been handled 130 miles away as part of efforts to cut costs, and ruling Labour councillors say they are pleased with the operation.

But the contract is due for renewal, and opposition councillors have questioned how good the service is.

A Town Hall scrutiny committee will examine the arrangements on Thursday.

Lib Dem Jean Fooks said: “This is a terribly important service, and having the calls answered up near Manchester is not brilliant.

“We have had a number of instances of things not happening as they should and people not being helped as they should, or messages not being passed on.

“The council report says it is OK for officers to make a final decision on renewing the contract, but we think there should be involvement from members of the council. We have to make sure the service is working well.”

Until 2010, a joint service for councils across Oxfordshire operated from Barton, but the arrangement ended when Oxfordshire County Council contracted out its calls over care for the elderly.

Mrs Fooks said she was worried that call handlers in Cheshire would not know the city’s geography or the right people in the council to hand problems on to.

But the council said the costs of providing its own service were higher than renewing the existing contract.

Council leader Bob Price said: “It is much cheaper than the in-house option, which we would in a sense have preferred.

“They have also been more effective than we thought they might have been, so we are not as worried as we were originally about the quality.

“The service has been OK, and it is getting better.”

He said the council had tested the quality of Astraline’s provision by using mystery shoppers and examining complaint logs.