Phone and web move to net Croydon Council £5m (From This Is Local London)

Phone and web move to net Croydon Council £5m

7:40am Thursday 9th September 2010 in

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The council plans to save £5.7m a year by reducing the number of people visiting Access Croydon services and dealing with taxpayers over the phone and on the internet.

At present, 180,000 visits to the council’s offices a year cost about £2.2m and phone calls to the council – more than 1m received last year – cost the council about £2.80 per call. A single visit to the website costs just 19p.

The authority surveyed 1,500 people, of which, 80 per cent said they would be happy to use the council’s website.

Councillor Sara Bashford, cabinet member for customer services, culture and sport, said: “We are concentrating on modernising our access arrangements in line with residents’ requirements. A lot of work has gone into developing our contact centre and making our website more capable, but a lot more needs to be done as quickly as possible so residents can choose to contact the council in the way that best suits them.”