More than 14,000 payments for council tax, penalty charge notices, sundry debts, housing benefit overpayments, and business rates have been made using the council’s e-payment system since its launch in March.
The facility allows customers to make payments by debit or credit card, 24 hours a day, seven days a week via the council’s website.
Since the system went live, there have been 7,388 telephone payments, bringing in a total of GBP1,036,576. There have also been 4,098 internet payments generating GBP457,084 and 2,826 payments made using the automated telephone service, generating GBP345,748.
Peterborough City Council leader John Peach commented, council customers are clearly committed to embracing more flexible, efficient methods of paying for council services. I am delighted that so many people are now using these easier payment methods, which are also more cost effective for us to administer.
The council’s housing repair team has also launched a computer-based work allocation system as an efficiency case study to be copied by other local authorities.
Plumbers, electricians, carpenters and bricklayers working within the city council’s city services division use palm-held PDAs to receive work assignments and report back on the progress of each project being undertaken via a radio link.
The council says that, as a result of implementing this technology, there have been huge increases in efficiency, with 80% of repairs being completed on the first visit without any pre-inspections, and customer satisfaction levels have risen to close to 100%. Based on this success, the team has won contracts to service gas and oil-fired heating systems for Axiom and Minster General Housing Associations, in addition to its main contract with Cross Keys Homes.
Under the previous paper-based operating system, non-urgent repairs could take up to 20 days to complete, whereas now the average is seven days. Repairs can be scheduled according to urgency for completion in two hours, 24 hours, five days or 28 days.
