A SOMERSET Councillor has scrutinised the unitary authority's slow phone response times experienced by residents.

Cllr Mark Healey, Opposition Lead Member for Prosperity, Assets and Development (Huntspill division), voiced the concerns of disgruntled residents who had experienced prolonged waiting times whilst trying to contact Somerset Council.

Cllr Healey noted 'frequent complaints' from locals, some of whom had waited days to resolve issues such as paying their council tax bills.

He stressed an 'urgent need' for the council to improve its customer service operations in order to avoid these problems.

"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," Cllr Healey said.

"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, said: "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."

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, and assured that the authority prioritises safeguarding calls, especially those concerning adults and children.

She added: "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.

Despite these measures, Cllr 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."