Dudley Council Plus will no longer be offering a Saturday service from 1 July after a steady decline in weekend contacts.

The customer service and call centre receives around 1,500 calls every weekday but frequently less than 100 on a weekend. The council has decided to boost weekday customer support by allocating underused weekend resources to the working week.

Staff have been providing virtual support since the pandemic began via phone, email and the self-service online forms, and this work will continue. The centre itself has been closed to walk-in customers on Saturday since the pandemic began, with customers opting to self-serve instead using online resources.

People will still be able to get in touch at the weekend for any urgent household repairs or emergencies. Councillor Shaun Keasey, cabinet member for digital, customer and commercial services, said:

"We’ve seen a significant drop in customer contacts at the weekend over the last few years, but we’re busier than ever during the week so we decided to allocate our weekend staff resources to when they’re needed most.

"People will still be able to get in touch with us for urgent repairs or emergencies, and they can self-serve using one of our many online forms for other service requests such as requesting extra recycling bags, paying their council tax, reporting a pothole or making an appointment with our registrars."

Revised opening hours from 1 July 2021 onwards will be 8:30am to 5:00pm between Monday and Friday. People can get in touch by phone on 0300 555 2345, by email to dudleycouncilplus@dudley.gov.uk or by completing one of the many self serve forms on the council website.

Dudley Council Plus will continue to undertake contact tracing 7 days per week, using a dedicated weekend team for these calls.