WC cuts opening hours for calls and reception desks

The times you can call Wiltshire Council or visit reception desks will be cut by an hour a day from Monday 7 August. As usual when it makes a cut to a public service, the council brazenly claims the service will be improved because of the cut. In this case it says the cut will "ensure calls can be answered more efficiently and .. direct more resources to the busiest times".

Here's the full explanation from WC:

Wiltshire Council's reception desk opening hours and customer service calls will change from 8:30am - 5:30pm to 9am - 5pm. The 30 minute slots at the start and end of the day are the quieter times and staff will use those times to respond to emails, social media queries and for back office administrative duties. Entrance to the hubs will remain at 8:30am to 5:30pm for those wishing to use the hub facilities.

The changes will free up more time to deal with calls and face to face interactions during the busier times of the day and come as more Wiltshire residents opt to contact the council or find out information 24 hours a day via social media, emails and the My Wiltshire system.

Some services will be unaffected by the changes including libraries, leisure, registration, health and wellbeing centres and community campuses and the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH). Details of their opening times are on the Wiltshire Council website http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/

All calls outside of the core hours will be dealt with by the usual out of hours emergency system.

Also, people can use the My Wiltshire service at any time of day to report a range of issues including missed bin collection, highways, grass cutting, litter picking, fraud and trading standards. People can also let the council know of changes affecting their benefits and council tax on the app. The app has proven popular with more than 50,000 registered users.

Those who wish to report concerns online can go to http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/mywiltshire-online-reporting