Is social media the best option?

We need your help

Social media may seem a speedy way of getting in touch with us, but did you know it costs the council (and you as a taxpayer) much more to deal with issues via social media than through our website?

When you report a problem or ask a question that you could find the answer to on our website, one of our Customer Services Officers has to get involved, taking them away from handling phone and email queries from other residents.

They’ll need to manually type the info you’ve given into one our systems, ask you for any missing info, and often ask you to provide your contact details privately. This all takes time, and slows the process down.

For more complicated issues, such as ongoing fly-tipping in an area, resolving the problem requires a lot of information that can be harder to collect through social media – for example, we may need to collect witness statements, explain what options are available, and discuss which approach will work best and what you can expect. Social media isn’t a great solution in this scenario.

We’re asking you to try finding your answer, or reporting an issue, via our website first.

This will help because:

• The information is collected and sent to the right team automatically
• Customer Services staff don’t need to pass messages between customers and the relevant service – so they can spend more time answering the phone and emails
• You’ll be given a reference number you can use to chase up progress
• Our forms and app talk you through providing all the info we need to take action, so nothing gets missed out

How to help us

Here’s how we recommend you try to find the answer to your query: