Increase in use of authority’s website

AN INCREASING number of residents in West Yorkshire are dealing with their council online, new figures show.

Demand as a whole for Calderdale Council’s customer services continues to grow, with the biggest portion of interactions with the local authority now taking place online, a meeting of its full council was told.

Coun Jane Scullion, for Luddenden Foot, cabinet member for resources, performance and business change, said that by the end of December, the council had received more than two million visits to its website.

Some 273,000 people had accessed services online, 173,000 had contacted the council by telephone and a further 41,000 people had received face-to-face support.

With more residents moving online, she said the number of contact centre calls had reduced by 9.94 per cent – 19,069 fewer – compared to the previous year.

“However, there was a peak in calls over the Christmas and New Year period when waste and recycling collections were off schedule at times,” Coun Scullion said.

“The team worked really hard to ensure that wait times and call answer rates were maintained.

She said online transactions with the council were now up 7.9 per cent compared with the same period in the previous year.

Online payments made to the council now stand at almost £6m, the meeting heard.

Coun Scullion added: “A push on digital services has resulted in encouraging increases in the number of customers signing up for waste day email reminders, direct debit and paperless billing.”