Click here for Filini's great offer for Stirrer readers

LABOUR DOESN'T WANT TO RING THE CHANGES

27-03-2008

Birmingham’s Labour Party are ramping up the pressure ahead of May’s local elections by launching a petition against the introduction of a premium rate phone number to call the Council. They’re calling it a "stealth tax"

Under plans for Business Transformation, Brum wants to offer taxpayers a single phone number through which all enquiries will be directed.

The snag is that there are plans to replace the existing 0121 prefix with 0870 – currently charged at more than 6p per minute. Of course, the more inefficient the Council are at handling your enquiry, the longer you stay on the phone – and the more you pay.

No date has been set for the switchover, although it has certainly been mooted by Councillor Alan Rudge – arch-moderniser of the city’s back office.

Labour’s Steve Bedser, who’s behind the petition, says: “We urge the council never to implement 0870 numbers as a way of generating income in the name of so called ‘Business Transformation’.

“This would be an unfair stealth tax and would disproportionately affect citizens on low and fixed incomes; potentially the very same vulnerable people who have most need of the council’s services.”