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Hastings Borough Council - 0845 is a "local call" (Read 37,486 times)
NGMsGhost
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Re: Hastings Borough Council - 0845 is a "local ca
Reply #15 - Aug 10th, 2008 at 7:46pm
 
While it is good to see criticism from the opposition parties the recent similar foolish switch to 0844 by Labour run Norwich City Council makes it clear this is not something associated with any one particular political party but something associated with council's who have foolish greedy and stupid councillors in charge of their cabinets. Shocked Angry Cry

I still find it utterly staggering how many cretinous councils have been conned in to switching to 084 and 087 prefixed numbers.

Anyone living in one of these council areas would be well advised to follow the official council complaints procedure through to deadlock with its Chief Executive and then pursue the matter further at that stage with the Local Government Ombudsman.

See www.lgo.org.uk

It would be very interesting to see a test decision by the Local Government Ombudsman about a council switching to use of an 084 or 087 number, especially for those councils that are also telling lies to the effect that it is no more than the cost of a local phone call.............

Unfortunately I see that the LGO Advice Team still lists an 0845 number to reach them though at www.lgo.org.uk, even though at www.lgo.org.uk/contact.htm they then also list a geographic alternative alongside the 0845 number.  It seems yet another Ombudsman who is clueless about the use of telephone numbers.  I note that I still await the response of my my complaint of several weeks ago to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman about their use of an 0845 Contact Centre number. Smiley
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« Last Edit: Aug 10th, 2008 at 8:28pm by NGMsGhost »  

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Dave
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Re: Hastings Borough Council - 0845 is a "local ca
Reply #16 - Sep 14th, 2008 at 8:06pm
 
Report: MANAGEMENT RESPONSE TO THE SCRUTINY REVIEW OF PUBLIC CONTACT ARRANGEMENTS; AND A PETITION ON THE COUNCIL’S USE OF 0845 NUMBERS

Quote:
Report to:                 Cabinet

Date of Meeting:     7 July 2008

Report Title:             MANAGEMENT RESPONSE TO THE SCRUTINY REVIEW OF PUBLIC CONTACT ARRANGEMENTS; AND A PETITION ON THE COUNCIL’S USE OF 0845 NUMBERS

[…]

Purpose of Report

To provide the management response to the final report of the Scrutiny Review into public contact arrangements, and to alert Cabinet to, and respond to, a petition received on the Council's use of 0845 numbers.

Recommendation(s)

1.      That the management response to the final report of the public contact arrangements Scrutiny Review be agreed

2.      That the Council continues to use 0845 numbers for the remainder of this financial year, but then moves to phasing them out and publishing geographic numbers from early 2009.

[…]


See minutes of meeting:

http://www.hastings.gov.uk/meetings/meetings_docs/080707~cabinet~minutes~CABINET...

Quote:
26.            MANAGEMENT RESPONSE TO THE SCRUTINY REVIEW OF PUBLIC CONTACT ARRANGEMENTS; AND A PETITION ON THE COUNCIL’S USE OF 0845 NUMBERS

The Head of Destination Management and Marketing presented the management response to the final report of the Scrutiny Review into public contact arrangements.  Appended to his report were the main text of the report, the action plan and the minute of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee for Resources, which had considered the report.

The Head of Destination Management and Marketing also reported on a petition, supported by 11 signatures, asking that the Council “offer residents of the Borough a choice of how they contact their Council and for them not to be forced to use the published Special Service Number and to ensure in accordance with the recommendation of ESCC Trading Standards a geographic alternative is published in all HBC publicity for the public to use”.

The petitioners had been invited to attend the meeting to address Cabinet but they were not present.

Councillor Silverson, Chair of the Scrutiny Review Team, presented the Scrutiny report.

Councillor Kramer, spokesperson for the Labour Group, addressed Cabinet.

Councillor Stevens, spokesperson for the Liberal Democrat Group, addressed Cabinet.


           RESOLVED (unanimously) that: -

(1)              the management response to the final report of the public contact arrangements Scrutiny Review be agreed; and

(2)              the Council continues to use 0845 numbers for the remainder of this financial year, but then moves to phasing them out and publishing geographic numbers from early 2009.

(3)       those involved in the Scrutiny Review be thanked for their hard work.
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NGMsGhost
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Re: Hastings Borough Council - 0845 is a "local ca
Reply #17 - Sep 14th, 2008 at 10:48pm
 
An interesting development indeed.

I'm sure this needs to be drawn to the attention of the Cabinet members of Norwich City Council....................

My only question is if 0845 is bad then why wait until the end of the Financial Year to implement the change back to geographic phone numbers?
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Re: Hastings Borough Council - 0845 is a "local ca
Reply #18 - Sep 15th, 2008 at 12:06am
 
It appears that the intention is to start the process of changeover to geographic numbers from the beginning of the 2009 calendar year. The reason for this, and other background, in given in the report accepted by the committee.

It appears that the review group was reasonably well in touch with the issues and it saw no remaining justification for the benefits offered by non-geographic numbers, or certainly did not consider them worth the outlay involved in using 03. Where this is true, this must be the right decision. If however the benefits of use of non-geographic numbers are worthwhile (e.g. where there is a single main contact number) then 03xx must be the only option considered.
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