New electronic system provides easier access to County Council
‘Total Mobile’ a new electronic system is being rolled out by the county council. It is the pre-cursor to the physical move by the council back into market towns. It will enable the council to develop drop-in centres in its market towns where the public can meet staff, and workers can drop in and download facilities to keep vital information updated daily.
Grant Davey, Leader of Northumberland County Council said: “Despite the fact we are England’s sparsest council we’ve had our sparsity funding removed by government along with an 82% cut in our revenue grant.
“That’s money to safeguard jobs and services being slashed over the next four years along with the rural services grant running out over the next two years.
‘Total Mobile’ will enable more staff to work locally and make better use of their time by saving long journeys between offices, they will simply drop in to their ‘local office’ and download their work.
There will also be a video conferencing system allowing regular contact and quicker decision making between the workforce and managers.
Across the council Google is being rolled-out which means staff can access work in different locations and from devices like phones and tablets.
Already teams ranging from social services through to Northumberland Fire and Rescue Service are using the new technology to allow them to work more efficiently away from the office.
Councillor Davey added: “This new system will allow local people to interact with the council at locations near to them, rather than all staff working out of a centralised hub in Morpeth.
“We are committed to servicing people’s needs locally and I can’t understand why anyone would want it any other way.
“Travelling to our current headquarters in Morpeth can be a difficult journey for people as it is some distance from the town centre.
“What we want is for residents to be able to pop in to local offices when they’re out at the shops, similar to when services were delivered by district councils.
“We’re working to introduce ‘Total Mobile’ in all our market towns and I’d like to reassure the people of Morpeth, who seem to have been left out of this debate, that we will open a service centre for them in the town centre.
