Residents are being left hanging on the telephone to Bristol City Council’s helpline more than three times longer than the two-minute target.
Calls are being answered in an average of just over 6min 30sec by staff at the citizen service centre (CSC), which handles 700,000 enquiries a year about almost 40 of the authority’s services including benefits, council tax, bin collections, care and housing.
Waiting times have soared during the pandemic as a result of advisers having to work from home and the complex nature of many calls, as well as dated phone and IT systems, councillors heard.
