At your service - alphabetically

DO YOU have something that really makes you see red?

One of my pet hates is 'phoning a company and getting a recorded voice which says: "If you have a star on your telephone, press it now. Thank you for calling. If you have a query about a bill, press one. If you are interested in customer sales, press two. If you have a query about repairs, press three. If you want to stand on your head, press four . . ."

Somehow the numbers they give me to press never match what it is I'm actually 'phoning for, and I land up listening to the whole bunch of numbers again and tearing my hair out with frustration. All I want is a friendly voice on the other end to tell me what I need to know.

Well, we don't use numbers at the council, but I have to agree that in the past finding the right person to talk to, in the right department, with the right information, has often taken more than one phone call. It can be really frustrating to feel you're being passed from pillar to post until your call finally reaches its proper destination.

It's even more frustrating if you don't have a 'phone and you're trying to get through from a public 'phone box with your money running out and the queues building up outside.

It's also inefficient from the council point of view, of course, because it means three or more members of staff may be answering a 'phone call that could be taken by just one person.

That's why an easy 'A - Z of Council Services' plopped through your letter box. (Well, we hope it plopped through. One of the first callers we had after it had been delivered said they thought it was a great idea, but the post boy had broken the letter box pushing it through! You can't win 'em all . . . )

The aim is to make sure you can find the right person to talk to quickly and easily with just one call. Keep it handy with your 'phone book and use it whenever you need us. But before you put it away, do what I did and have a quick flick through just for fun. Isn't it amazing how many different things the council does? I mean, I work there and some of the items took me by surprise. I'll have a bet with you that you didn't realise half the services included in the A - Z were actually provided by the council. Makes you realise, if there was no local council, it would leave a far bigger hole behind it than many of us think.

I heard Hilary Armstrong, the minister for local government, make a stirring speech the other day urging people to wake up to the value of local democracy.

If the council delivers so many services that affect our everyday lives, it's only right that all of us should have a say in what those services are and how they are delivered.

There are lots of different ways of doing that, but the key one is through representatives who you elect as councillors. If you don't know who your councillor is, look up the number to call in your A - Z ! And make sure next May that you have your say in the local elections which decide just who that councillor will be.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.