Shropshire Council to shut nine customer service points under cost-cutting plans
Nine Shropshire Council customer service offices will close and a further six will see their hours cut under plans to save money.
‘Financial challenges’ and government spending cuts have been blamed for the proposed closures across the county, with council bosses opening a consultation seeking views on the proposals.
In the last four years the number of people visiting the offices has fallen by more than 50 per cent, from 70,615 in April 2014 to 33,079 in April 2018.
Some of the smaller customer points have seen no customers at all some months.
What will change under the plans?
The council is proposing to reduce the days on which staff at its main offices in Shrewsbury, Oswestry, Whitchurch, Market Drayton, Ludlow and Bridgnorth are available to directly support customers.
Instead of being open up to five days a week, the Bridgnorth, Ludlow, Shrewsbury and Oswestry offices would be open just two days a week and Whitchurch and Market Drayton would be open one day a week.
These six centres are the only customer service points run directly by Shropshire Council staff.
The offices in Albrighton, Bishop’s Castle, Broseley, Church Stretton Town Council and Church Stretton Health and Well-being Centre, Cleobury Country, Ellesmere, Shifnal and Wem would close completely. These locations all use staff from partner agencies.
Number of people using customer service points by year:
2013/14: 70,615
2014/15: 70,825
2015/16: 52,025
2016/17: 39,229
2017/18: 33,079
Some of the customer service points are based in town libraries while others are in local civic centres or community hubs.
Currently, visitors to customer service offices are able to get advice on housing matters, buy parking permits, renew disabled badges and apply for concessionary travel permits.
If the closures come into force, people will instead need to call the main customer service centre by phone to speak to an adviser.
Some self-service phones linked to the centre are already in place at customer service points and the council is hoping to keep these in place.
Spending cuts
The consultation paper says: "In light of the financial challenges we face due to government spending reductions and rising costs, we have to find ways of making savings across all council services.
"We are consulting on what we feel is the best compromise between continuing to provide a service and staying within our budget.
"In reaching this recommendation we have looked at the busiest days at each site and also the staff resource we have available to meet these needs.
"In our six main offices we will keep the self-serve facilities so that customers can still speak to an adviser throughout the day and at times when customer service staff are not on site."
Steve Charmley, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for corporate and commercial support, said: “Whilst we recognise that some residents need local access to services, we have to find ways of achieving this on much-reduced budgets.
“In preparation for the consultation we have looked critically and sensibly at the times we have staff present in our offices. We need to make sure that we provide value for money, whilst continuing to be fair to our customers.
"Currently, these are simply proposals and no decisions have yet been made.”
Click here to find out more and take part in the consultation, which runs until August 24.
