Oswestry council service desk faces cuts or closure
Shropshire Council says its Oswestry service desk, which could be cut to two days a week, now sees fewer than half the people it dealt with when it opened four years ago.
The desk at Oswestry's library is one of nine across the county that could be cut or closed altogether under the unitary authority's budget review.
Members of Oswestry Town Council wrote to the authority calling for a breakdown of the numbers of people using the face-to-face service.
Councillors said they were concerned that a significant number of people, particularly older adults, still prefer to deal with someone face-to-face, rather than via phones and other technology.
Assistant town clerk Arren Roberts said: "Members highlighted the false economy of enquiries being dealt with multiple times, not being resolved at first point of contact and the impact that this has on service delivery, resulting in increased costs and not budget savings.
In reply, Shropshire Council customer services manger, Chris Westwood, said the number of users had dropped from 13,100 in 2013 to 8,221 in 2017 and 6,290 in 2018.
He said the council's customer service centre or the more specialist services themselves were able to resolve most issues over the phone.
"Housing benefits and Revenues deal with their own enquiries and have their own telephone service and concessionary travel renewals can be handled by the Customer Service Centre over the telephone rather than face-to-face," he said.
He added that the majority of Blue Badge services are posted and parking charges can be paid over the phone.
"We expect to keep some face-to-face resource in Oswestry," he added.
"We nevertheless have to remain within available budgets and encouraging as many customers to do business with use over the phone, where a relatively small team is able to deal with as many enquiries in just over one month as our entire face-to-face service handles over a full year, is clearly a logical and affordable option for consideration.
"Should these proposed changes take place it is my intention to put some additional resource within the Customer Service Centre to ensure we are able to answer in good time."
