At the Somerset Full Council meeting on July 17th, Councillor Mark Healey voiced significant concerns about the prolonged response times experienced by residents trying to contact Somerset Council. Highlighting frequent complaints from constituents, Councillor Healey stressed the urgent need for the council to improve its customer service operations.
Councillor Healey described the frustration expressed by residents who struggle to get through to the council. "The biggest complaints I get are from people saying we cannot get through to the council—sometimes waiting an hour and a half, two hours, or even two to three days," he explained. "People are panicking when they want to pay their council tax but can't get through, and then they receive threatening letters if they don't pay on time. This is not acceptable."
He called on the council to address the issue directly, asking, "What are we going to do about it? How do we make it better? How can we get our general public through to the council?"
In response, Councillor Federica Smith-Roberts, Lead Member for Communities, Housing, and Culture, acknowledged the challenges and provided an overview of the council’s current approach. "We do know that sometimes we get peaks and troughs of where individuals are struggling to get through to us. Our customer service team deals with thousands of calls. However, there are times when the wait is probably higher than we would like," she admitted.
Councillor Smith-Roberts mentioned that the council encourages residents to use self-service options for certain services, such as waste management, to reduce call volumes. "We have increased the wait time to a minimum of three minutes for waste-related calls to encourage online reporting, which helps free up lines for those who cannot use our online facilities," she explained. She assured that the council prioritises safeguarding calls, especially those concerning adults and children.
Despite these measures, Councillor Healey emphasised the need for a more comprehensive solution. "That doesn't help the 85 or 87-year-old people who can’t or don't wish to go online and don't know how to use a computer," he argued. "We should be employing more people to actually answer the phone."
