AN extra £1.5million is expected to be spent improving telephone services for residents trying to contact BCP council.

The authority has been the subject of long-running complaints about how difficult it can be, and often how long it takes, to talk to a council officer on the phone.

Councillors on the overview and scrutiny committee have raised the issue several times over recent months.

This week’s meeting was told that £1.5million has now been included in next year’s budget to improve telephone services.

Council leader Cllr Drew Mellor said that while the council sought to achieve savings from using online technologies where possible it would use those cost reductions to provide telephone and other face to face contact, where it was needed.

His comments came after complaints from Cllr Vikki Slade about the difficulties people were having accessing the Local Plan consultation, which was currently only available online; “A lot of people won’t be able to fill it in…even some who are good at digital technology find it hard,” she said.

She claimed there was a lot of mis-trust about the process with some believing that the council did not want to properly consult and was achieving that by not making it easy to do.

Cllr Mellor said the council remained committed to providing the means of communication for those unhappy, or unable to use online services – including holding face to face meetings for consultations and making use of facilities in local libraries.