First phase of response programme now operational

Ealing Council’s new customer service centre has opened marking the first phase of improvements which aim to provide better services borough.

The new centre is situated on the Uxbridge Road in the main council building, Perceval House. The refurbishment features a new accessible entrance on the Uxbridge Road, a bright modern interior, ‘meeters and greeters’ to ensure people get to the right place for their query, and private areas for confidential discussions.

The centre will be open from 8:30am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. Initially it will deal with a range of council services, with more services moving in later.

It represents the first phase of the controversial Response Programme for which £50m was pledged to improve the council’s provision for residents after they were ranked ‘weak’ by the Audit Commission. Despite a high degree of public uncertainty, the council pressed on with their plans.

Council Leader Leo Thompson said “I’m really proud of the new customer centre. We wanted to create a top quality space for our residents’ enquiries to be dealt with effectively and efficiently, and that’s exactly what we have delivered. Though there is a lot more to do before we can provide all the changes we have promised, this first step will improve the experience people have when dealing with the council and the quality of this new centre is a mark of the improvements to come.”

The council is currently attempting to develop an integrated computer system, which could mean that you will be able to call in to the customer centre, telephone seven days a week or go online and get most of your enquiries resolved there and then without being passed onto somebody else. However they recently dismissed main contractor ATOS-Origin after the project was delayed due to their inability to get the different systems to 'talk' to each other.

August 15th, 2005