September 2, 2011 10.24 am This story is over 165 months old

City Hall cuts service opening times

Opening times: The City of Lincoln Council is about to reduce the City Hall service opening times.

City Hall at the City of Lincoln Council offices will be changing its opening times, encouraging more people to call for help instead.

The changes, starting September 5, will see the opening hours become 9am to 4.30pm during the week, while the 01522 881188 phone service will be available 8.30am and 5pm Monday to Thursday, and until 4.30pm on Friday.

The City Council said most people use City Hall for services such as benefits, council tax, housing, bus passes and planning.

Jo Crookes, Customer Services Manager at the City of Lincoln Council, said: “We carried out extensive research, which revealed that most people come into City Hall between 9am and 4.30pm.

“So we’ve changed the opening hours to maximise the access people have to our advisors.”

However, the new opening times will mean those in work may be unable to speak to an advisor in person.

When asked last month about the changes to the opening hours in the Leaders Live debate, Councillor Ric Metcalfe said:

“The total number of hours that City Hall is open hasn’t actually changed.

“We have changed our hours slightly, we used to open late on a Wednesday morning and that won’t be the case now – we’ll be open between 9am and 4.30pm all week.

“What we find is that the majority of people who contact the council do so by telephone – about 70%, which is why we’ve established a very efficient call centre (open from 8.30am until 5pm between Monday and Thursday and 08.30am until 4.30pm on Friday).

“We’re also seeing a developing use of the internet as a means of contacting the council and indeed of actually carrying out varying transactions, making payments, requesting services and so on.

“So, there are other channels in contacting us instead of walking through our front door, that’s not to say that personal contact isn’t still important to us and we do keep our opening hours under constant review.”

For those unable to visit City Hall, you can contact the services on 01522 881188 or find documents and services online at www.lincoln.gov.uk/myinfo.

Source: City of Lincoln Council