Town Hall switches to call centre to save East End council tax

HOUSEHOLDERS ringing the Town Hall for out-of-hours help for anything from noise nuisance to burst pipes have been switched to a call centre to save council taxpayers around �200,000 a year in London’s East End. But the saving doesn’t mean any operators have been sacked, an official has assured.

By Mike Brooke

HOUSEHOLDERS ringing the Town Hall for out-of-hours help for anything from noise nuisance to burst pipes have been switched to a call centre to save council taxpayers around �200,000 a year in London's East End.

But the saving doesn't mean any operators have been sacked by Tower Hamlets Council, an official has told the East London Advertiser last night.

"There were no redundancies involved," a Town Hall spokesman assured. "The seven people who were providing the after-hours service directly from the council have been transferred to the company running the call centre on the same pay and conditions, under the regulations for staff who are moved."

Tower Hamlets is sharing the service with another East London borough, Barking & Dagenham, as well as with Ealing, Haringey and Lambeth.

The call centre set up at London Bridge is run by Vangent specialist contractors, who offered to halve the cost for dealing with inquiries by providing one centre for the five local authorities. The out-of-hours helpline for Tower Hamlets is 020-7364 7070.