Some callers facing ‘nightmarish’ wait to get through to Central Bedfordshire Council
Calls to Central Bedfordshire Council were answered in an average of less than three minutes last quarter, official figures show.
But councillors were told some residents still face a struggle navigating the telephone system, and often have a ‘nightmarish’ wait to get through.
A performance report to the council’s Corporate Resources Overview and Scrutiny Committee (Tuesday, April 21) said the average call wait time during the third quarter of 2025/26 beat the target of 180 seconds and was an improvement by 34 seconds on the previous quarter.
But during the meeting, councillors raised concerns about the experience some residents face once they get through.
Councillor Susan Clinch (Green, Ampthill) said: “It might be quicker to get the phone answered, once you have been taken through to the… backroom, you are sat on a corridor with a nightmarish wait via the system. Which you [then] have to navigate once you’ve been answered to get to who you need to speak to.
“It may be that it is navigable, but certainly my elderly residents aren’t finding it navigable.”
Committee chair, councillor Ian Adams (Conservative, Flitwick) said the lack of a general customer services email address appeared to be pushing more people on to the phone.
“That’s surely not our intention, is it?” he asked.
Robert Ling, director of resources and organisational change, said savings made in the service had consequences.
“We’ve made what is the best part of £300,000 of savings out of customer service,” he said. “The direct impact of that is longer wait times because we just don’t have the people to pick up the call.
“I think waiting times are a little bit too long on the phone, but the more that we can get people who can go online to go online, it leaves us with the resource of people who genuinely can’t go online.”
Mr Ling said some callers are abandoning calls when they hear the “repetitive” suggestion they go online.
“Which does, ironically, then leave the phone lines free to those who really need it,” he said. “We are trying to change behaviours, the reality is that if we build services in the right way people will use them.