Walsall Council apologises as residents complain they can't get through on the phone

One elderly woman said she was left waiting more than 40 minutes as she attempted to report a fly-tipping incident to Walsall Council before hanging up.

The authority said it had "been made aware" of issues with its phone system and that they were being addressed. It said increased demand had put added pressure on the system.

Residents calling specialist services, such as the clean and green department to report fly-tipping, were likely to be kept waiting longer, bosses added.

People have also been advised to contact the council online where possible.

Independent councillor Pete Smith said the problems undermined the council's efforts to tackle issues such as fly-tipping and that people were more likely to be put off bothering to report issues if they knew they were not going to get through to speak to anyone.

An Express & Star investigation last month revealed thousands of fly-tippers were going unpunished across the region. Out of 19,500 incidents in 2019/20 there were just 124 fines.

Councillor Smith said: "Getting through to them is very difficult at times, even though I have now been told it will be improved.

"A local elderly resident was holding the phone for 42 minutes, just ringing out at which point she understandably put down the receiver.

"I have had several similar scenarios told to me in recent weeks. This must be put right if local residents are to have the confidence to report fly tipping."

A Walsall Council spokesman said: “We have recently been made aware of some issues with our automated telephone messaging system which due to increased demand has led to longer response times than normal. Please accept our apologies if it has been difficult to get through.

"These issues are being addressed and customers can now make informed decisions about whether to wait in the telephone queue during busy periods, or report issues via other online self-serve methods.

"Over the last two weeks call waiting time has now been reduced to under five minutes, but we are aware that waiting times for specialist services at peak times may be higher.

“At this particularly busy time we would encourage everyone who can, to use our online tools and report fly-tipping issues on this fly-tipping page. There is also an option to report fly tipping on our Report It function – the button is on the Walsall Council website homepage.”