Council questioned over new telephone number

Numbers beginning 0845 and 0875 are used by many businesses and organisations providing a wide range of services, but calls are generally more expensive than to ordinary 01 or 02 geographical numbers.

Calls to the new county council number from mobile phones cost between 8.5p per minute and 20p per minute, depending on the network.

Now former Blyth Valley borough councillor, Bob Watson, has made a formal complaint to regulator Ofcom about the county council's use of the number.

He says Ofcom guidance states that public organisations such as Government departments, GP surgeries and councils should not use such numbers exclusively, when dealing with people on low incomes and other vulnerable groups.

Yesterday Mr Watson said: "Ofcom recommends that public bodies should not use 0845 or 0870 numbers because of the extra costs involved for many callers. I am not with BT and calling the county council number cost me 8p for connection and then 4p a minute.

"It cost me 22p for a three-minute call so you can see how it could get quite expensive for someone ringing up with a complicated query about housing or benefits.

"The council is not advertising the availability of the old 01 numbers, even though Ofcom guidance says geographical numbers should be given equal prominence."

County council Conservative group leader, Peter Jackson, said his group has asked for the use of the 0845 number to be discussed at a scrutiny committee next month.

"We need to know why the new authority went for an 0845 number when other councils and organisations have switched to 0345 numbers instead.

"We have go to look at this in detail because we want residents to have the cheapest calls possible into the county council."

A spokeswoman for Ofcom said: "We have issued advice that public sector bodies should not use more expensive 08 numbers, but this is only guidance and is not a mandatory requirement or a rule. It is a decision for the organisations involved."

John Berry, former secretary of the North East Pensioners' Association, said: "These numbers are a deterrent to elderly people contacting their council. Calls to local councils should be as cheap as possible."

COST-EFFECTIVE OPTION

County council head of customer services, Chris Philips, said: "Having a single number provides a simple, memorable message to everyone who wishes to get in touch with us, and this is generally a cost-effective option for callers.

"0845 calls are generally charged at the local rate, but are often free as part of a call package. For mobile callers the charge varies depending on service provider. In many cases the charge is less than had the call been made to a 01670 number."

Mr Philips said Ofcom did recommend the use of 03 numbers. He added: "However, the only network they can force to ensure correct application of 03 call charging is BT. They cannot give guarantees that all networks will charge the same for 03 numbers, or that 03 numbers are available.

"This led us to conclude that 0845 was the best option and that 03 was not workable. We could not risk some callers being unable to contact us on an 03 number, which would be completely unacceptable."

Mr Philips said Ofcom has recommended that all providers move to charging the same amount for calls to 0845 this year, and there is general agreement to this from major network providers.

"The council does not make any money from use of the 0845 number," he added.