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Hot Topic (More than 10 Replies) Local councils' use of 084/087 numbers (Read 52,339 times)
Dave
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Local councils' use of 084/087 numbers
Jun 28th, 2009 at 2:01am
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Below is a list of local UK councils that use 084x revenue sharing telephone numbers. For each country I have classified these councils into three categories:

1. Councils that provide these numbers as their main point of contact, for switchboard and/or main contact centre.
2. Councils that use geographical (01/02) numbers or 03 non-geographical numbers for general enquiries but use 084/087 numbers for specific departments. Obviously there are probably others that are not listed as the study was in no way scientific. I listed those councils in this category when I came across them.
3. Councils that provide 084/087 numbers for one or more emergency out of hours services.


If you know of others that aren't listed, please let me know and I will add them.


England

084/087 provided as main contact number

Buckinghamshire County Council 0845
Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council 0845
Copeland Borough Council 0845
Derbyshire County Council 0845
Devon County Council 0845 [Discussion thread]
East Lindsey District Council 0844
Erewash Borough Council 0845
Essex County Council 0845 [Discussion thread]
Hambleton District Council 0845 [Discussion thread]
Hampshire County Council 0845
Harrogate Borough Council 0845
High Peak Borough Council 0845
Kent County Council 0845
Lancashire County Council 0845
North Tyneside Metropolitan Borough Council 0845
North Yorkshire County Council 0845 [Discussion thread]
Northumberland County Council 0845 [Discussion thread]
Nottinghamshire County Council 0844 [Discussion thread]
Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council 0845
Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council 0845 [Discussion thread]
Sedgemoor District Council 0845
Sefton Council 0845
Somerset County Council 0845
South Cambridgeshire District Council 0845 Equivalent 0345 numbers are in service
South Lakeland District Council 0845
Suffolk County Council 0845
Wakefield Metropolitan District Council 0844/5 [Discussion thread]
Warwickshire County Council 0845
West Sussex County Council 0845


084/087 used for one or more departments

Barnet London Borough Council 0845 Automated payments
Bath and North East Somerset Council 0845 Automated payments
Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council 0845 Council tax & benefits
Bexley London Borough Council 0845 Council tax & benefits
Bromley London Borough Council 0845 Council tax
Canterbury City Council 0845 Automated payments
Coventry City Council 0845 Automated payments
Dacorum Borough Council 0845 Automated payments
Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council 0845 Automated payments
Gloucester City Council 0845 Automated payments
Hammersmith and Fulham London Borough Council 0845 Automated payments
Haringey London Borough Council 0845 Council tax and other departments
Lambeth London Borough Council 0845 Council tax
Mendip District Council Council tax from 8 February 2010
Newcastle upon Tyne City Council 0845 Council tax & benefits
Portsmouth City Council 0845 Council tax
Rossendale Borough Council 0845 Council tax & benefits
Southwark London Borough Council 0845 Social services, buildings & planning and education
Staffordshire Moorlands District Council 0845 [Discussion thread]
Sutton London Borough Council 0845 Automated payments
Swindon Borough Council 0845 Council tax & benefits
Vale of White Horse District Council 0845 Council tax [Discussion thread]
Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council 0845 Council tax [Discussion thread]
Worcester City Council 0845 Automated payments
Worcestershire County Council 0845 Social care
Westminster City Council 0845 Council tax & benefits


084/087 used for out of hours only

Bedford Borough Council 0870
Blaby District Council 0870
Dartford Borough Council 0845
Derbyshire Dales and District Council 0844
Exeter City Council 0845
Hertsmere Borough Council 0845
Luton Borough Council 0870
Malvern Hills District Council 0845
Middlesbrough Council 0870 Out of hours social care
New Forest District Council 0844
Staffordshire County Council 0845
Wychavon District Council 0845
« Last Edit: Feb 9th, 2010 at 12:08pm by Dave »  
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Dave
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Local councils' use of 084/087 numbers
Reply #1 - Jun 28th, 2009 at 2:02am
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Northern Ireland

084/087 provided as main contact number

Ballymena Borough Council 0845


Scotland

084/087 provided as main contact number

Aberdeen City Council 0845
Aberdeenshire Council 0845 [Discussion thread]
Angus Council 0845
East Ayrshire Council 0845
East Dunbartonshire Council 0845
Fife Council 0845
North Ayrshire Council 0845
South Ayrshire Council 0845
South Lanarkshire Council 0845
Stirling Council 0845


084/087 used for one or more departments

East Renfrewshire Council 0845 Automated payments
Glasgow City Council 0845 Council tax
Moray Council 0845 Automated payments


084/087 used for out of hours only

Highland Council 0845
Perth and Kinross Council 0845


Wales

084/087 provided as main contact number

Powys County Council 0845


084/087 used for out of hours only

Denbighshire County Council 0845
Pembrokeshire County Council 0845
Wrexham County Borough Council 0845
« Last Edit: Jun 28th, 2009 at 4:08pm by Dave »  
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Re: Local councils' use of 084/087 numbers
Reply #2 - Jun 28th, 2009 at 2:14am
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What's surprised me is the extent to which councils use 084x numbers specifically for council tax automated payments. Some go further and use revenue sharing numbers for all tax enquiries. One such example is Vale of White Horse District Council which outsources it tax and benefits service. It may be the case that others do likewise, hence the need for a non-geographical number to mask the one of the third party's call centre. Derby City Council has geographical numbers for Council Tax enquiries for which an 03 number is provided.
  
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Re: Local councils' use of 084/087 numbers
Reply #3 - Jun 28th, 2009 at 7:48am
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The Welsh Assembly Government use 0845 as their contact number!
  
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Re: Local councils' use of 084/087 numbers
Reply #4 - Jun 28th, 2009 at 10:39am
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Dave wrote on Jun 28th, 2009 at 2:01am:
Below is a list of local UK councils that use 084x revenue sharing telephone numbers. For each country I have classified these councils into three categories:

1. Councils that provide these numbers as their main point of contact, for switchboard and/or main contact centre.


It is interesting that most of the largest City Councils continue to use normal geographic numbers for their switchboard and/or main contact centre.   For example :---

Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Coventry, Edinburgh, GLA(Greater london), Glasgow, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Oxford, Reading, Sheffield, Southampton, Wolverhampton. 

The question is --- Out of all the Town City and County Councils what proprtion are content to use a normal geo number?  ---   I suspect they are still very much the majority.     

So why are some of the smaller councils imposing revenue sharing, higher cost numbers on their populations?    You Dave have been doing stirling work in drawing attention to those maverick councils going to 08 numbers and in attempting to persuade them to reconsider their decisions and to look at going to 03 if they will not revert to geo numbers.

The point is that a geographic number serves these largest of Councils satisfactorily so how can we draw this to the attention of all the Councils and dissuade them from even thinking of converting?
« Last Edit: Jun 28th, 2009 at 1:11pm by Dave »  
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Re: Local councils' use of 084/087 numbers
Reply #5 - Jun 28th, 2009 at 10:50pm
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Dave is indeed to be congratulated on his sterling work, covering not only Stirling Council but also many other examples from around the UK.

It has been announced on BBC Working Lunch that the Contact Council is collecting information on this matter; I am sure that this list would be of value to that group.

Some of the Counties may be able to suggest that at one time the 0845 number was of value to landline callers from more remote parts of the County, who were able to benefit from the lower local rate. There are still some perverse tariffs that provide some callers with a specially discounted rate for calling 0845 numbers.

The game is however now up for all of these, as the understanding of revenue sharing is now spreading and there is no general use of local rates or discounts on 0845 calls. The only acceptable non-geographic numbers are 03xx, for use where the location of a remote call centre needs to be disguised or there is some other good reason not to use a geographic number.

If a local authority wishes for callers to subsidise the cost of providing services, so as to reduce the cost to Council Tax payers, this should be done openly by using a properly recognised Premium Rate Service number. (I make this comment as a point of argument, with no expectation that any authority would seriously take up this suggestion.)
  
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Re: Local councils' use of 084/087 numbers
Reply #6 - Jun 29th, 2009 at 5:11am
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Of course I had intended to imply that Dave had been driving forward this aspect of the campaign in the manner of Stirling, never being one to allow the moss to grow under his keyboard!

Your comment that the "only acceptable non-geographic numbers are 03xx, for use where the location of a remote call centre needs to be disguised or there is some other good reason not to use a geographic number" is absolutely as I see it.   They should only move away from use of geographic numbers if there is a genuinely justified reason.
« Last Edit: Jun 29th, 2009 at 5:31am by loddon »  
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Re: Local councils' use of 084/087 numbers
Reply #7 - Dec 21st, 2014 at 3:51pm
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A lot of the use of 0845 for Payments and Out of Hours Services is because it is Contracted out to Companies that offer these specific services instead of Council Staff working these extra hours.

I will be in touch with my Council after Xmas, who use only these specific services on an 0845 number, they have had the 0845 24/7 Payments number since 2009 but until recently Payments could be made through the Geographic Council number Customer Service Exchange but in June the Exchange Customer Service contract expired and a new Customer Service Exchange took over who didn't take Payments so an Option 1 on the Council Geo Number is now Auto Payments but they are having multiple problems with the new Exchange so it is a work in progress.

I will find out more after Xmas when I have explained the error of their ways in a Oner to One Contact.
  
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Re: Local councils' use of 084/087 numbers
Reply #8 - Dec 21st, 2014 at 4:25pm
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But some (Essex CC for example) use 0845 numbers for all their 'services', not just out-of-hours.
  
After years of ignoring govt. guidelines & RIPPING OFF Council Tax payers using 0845 numbers, Essex County Council changed to 0345 numbers on 2 November 2015
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Re: Local councils' use of 084/087 numbers
Reply #9 - Mar 1st, 2015 at 12:28pm
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Heinz wrote on Dec 21st, 2014 at 4:25pm:
But some (Essex CC for example) use 0845 numbers for all their 'services', not just out-of-hours.


Essex County Council is now perhaps the only one in England to be doing this for all departments and services.

Lancashire, Devon, Durham, Suffolk, Hampshire and many others have since switched to 0300 or 0345 numbers.

« Last Edit: Mar 1st, 2015 at 12:38pm by Ian01 »  
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Re: Local councils' use of 084/087 numbers
Reply #10 - Mar 1st, 2015 at 2:40pm
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I am more than happy to note that Essex County Council may be the only one still ripping off Council Tax payers in this way - but why does it have to be my bloody council?
  
After years of ignoring govt. guidelines & RIPPING OFF Council Tax payers using 0845 numbers, Essex County Council changed to 0345 numbers on 2 November 2015
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Re: Local councils' use of 084/087 numbers
Reply #11 - Mar 1st, 2015 at 8:05pm
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Heinz wrote on Mar 1st, 2015 at 2:40pm:
I am more than happy to note that Essex County Council may be the only one still ripping off Council Tax payers in this way - but why does it have to be my bloody council?

The fair telecoms campaign understands that Councillor Roger Hirst is leading a programme that will switch all current 084 numbers to 03 over the coming year (April 2015 to March 2016).

We understand that he is aware of the forthcoming need to declare the (typically 5p per minute) Service Charge imposed by Essex County Council for all those 0845 numbers that have not been switched by 1 July. We have suggested that if not all numbers have been switched by 1 July, the council will look a little foolish by being seen to introduce a (previously hidden) Service Charge for some telephone access from that date, when it is intending to remove it within 9 months.

Unless we hear very shortly that a more sensible plan has been adopted, media attention will be drawn to this slightly weird behaviour, along with that of other councils.

As always, we are delighted to work together with other campaigners, including those who may not wish to be associated with a group, in pursuit of common goals.
  
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Re: Local councils' use of 084/087 numbers
Reply #12 - Mar 2nd, 2015 at 9:24am
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It's about time there was some progress!  I was battling this one, using FOIs, contact with the then Council Leader (Lord Hanningfield), back in 2006 when we still lived in Essex, all to no avail, but then they always have been a fairly awful council, could never understand why they got Govt awards.
  
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Re: Local councils' use of 084/087 numbers
Reply #13 - Jun 12th, 2015 at 8:38pm
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While most councils are moving away from 0845 numbers (mostly to 0300 or 0345 numbers), Bristol City Council is the first to declare a Service Charge.

http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Agov.uk+%22Calls+cost%22+%22per+minute+plus...

« Last Edit: Jun 12th, 2015 at 8:48pm by Ian01 »  
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Re: Local councils' use of 084/087 numbers
Reply #14 - Jun 30th, 2015 at 7:08pm
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Wellingborough
http://www.wellingborough.gov.uk/news/article/1037/new_number_for_council_paymen...      

  
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