Council sends to Coventry

South Oxfordshire District Council will transfer its customer services operations to a call centre in the West Midlands city next April.

The service will be outsourced to Capita, the company that already runs the authority's council tax and housing benefit inquiries, pending the conclusion of contract talks.

Telephone and email inquiries will be answered by staff in Coventry but residents will still be able to visit the council's Wallingford headquarters in person.

The council's aim is for 80 per cent of all calls to be dealt with at the first point of contact.

Earlier this year the council contracted out its tourist information helpline to a Vienna-based call centre, and benefits and council tax calls have been answered by Capita's Coventry call centre since July.

The latest move, part of the council's drive to improve customer satisfaction, will cost £250,000 to implement and a further £250,000 if additional planned phases are given approval.

But the ruling Conservatives believe it will be money well spent. Rodney Mann, the cabinet member for finance, said: "The council is committed to providing a consistently high level of customer service to residents and making it easier for them to contact us and access our services.

"Capita has a successful track record in providing customer contact centres and has been providing us with an excellent council tax and housing benefit service since July."

The first services to transfer to the call centre would be calls to the switchboard and IT helpdesk. The council would save £15,000 a year on this transfer and other services would transfer in phases.

Liberal Democrat group leader David Turner said improving the current customer service system, using voice-mail, was not fully investigated. He said: "This should have been a researched option as an alternative to spending taxpayers' money on setting up what is universally 'the hated call centre'."