Source: Northampton Chronicle & Echo

http://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/news/Northamptonshire-County-Council-is-to.5169963.jp

Northamptonshire County Council is to get new 0300 number

Published Date:  15 April 2009

All the telephone numbers for Northamptonshire County Council are due to be changed amid fears the Northampton dialling code could be scrapped.

Members of the council's cabinet yesterday backed plans to change the council's current phone numbers.

The move will mean people have to dial a new 0300 number to reach staff at County Hall.

It was made amid fears the current 01604 dialling code for Northampton could soon be phased out.

The change of number will also mean people will be able to dial the same number from anywhere in the county and council staff will be able to transfer calls from one end of Northamptonshire county to another, which they are not currently able to do.

The move to a new number was welcomed by the leader of the opposition on the council, Councillor John McGhee (Lab, Kingswood), but he expressed concerns about the cost of the project.

He said: "I've not got a big problem with this, because it makes sense to the customers.

"But it will cost money and with the recession we're in at the moment, I'd ask whether it would be sensible to delay the change for two or three years."

Members of the cabinet heard it would take at least 18 months to change all the council's phone numbers once the project is put into place.

Councillors also heard one of the reasons the change had been considered was because officers at the organisation fear the 01604 dialling code would be phased out "in the next five years".

The council's new 0300 number will be charged at a local rate for people calling anywhere in Northamptonshire, apart from Corby and Brackley.

Councillors heard the way phone providers split up the country means they consider both Corby and Brackley are not in Northamptonshire, meaning calls from the two towns to the county council would be charged at a national rate using the new number.

Councillor Ken Melling (Con, Middleton Cheney) condemned the extra charge, adding: "I'm very concerned about the rural areas of south Northamptonshire being treated differently to the rest of the county.

"All people of Northamptonshire should be treated equally, not made to feel like second class citizens."

The council agreed to hold talks with both Ofcom and BT about the issue.

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What's this about the Northampton dialling code being "scrapped"? What will it be replaced with?  :-?

I know at one time there was a suggestion that the UK should move to wide area codes where there would be 15 across the country. Northern Ireland is one such example where separate dialling codes were abolished and are now part of the 028 code.

So is this a joke?

And what the nonsense about certain areas being so-called "national rate"? For the tiny minority of citizens who still subscribe to such tariffs, they pay national rate now anyway. And they are likely to be those on BT's Light User Scheme or whatever it is these days, so they are low telephone users anyway.

http://cmis.northamptonshire.gov.uk/CmisWebPublic/Binary.ashx?Document=4927

FORWARD PLAN OF DECISIONS
Published by Legal & Democratic Services
Councillor Jim Harker Leader of the Council
PLAN NUMBER 86
For the period April 2009 to July 2009

[…]

Responsible Cabinet Member – Councillor Andre Gonzalez De Savage
Reference No.: 479

Section1 - the decision needed, how it relates to the Council’s Corporate Outcomes and the costs and risks involved.

Title
Renumbering the council‟s telephone numbers to enable all council buildings to be connected on one telephone system and deliver end to end delivery for our customers.

The Decision needed
To agree that the council will move away from the local numbers for each location and adopt an 0300 numbering system for all locations and extensions.

Relevant Corporate Outcome and Priority
A smaller more enabling Council focused on our customers.

Timetable for implementation
This is dependant on OfCom releasing the agreed numbers however it is expected to start the implementation in April 2009 and complete the project for all sites by December 2010.

Spending/Saving
The financial implications are:

There will be a cost of £70000 to annual revenue if the 03 option is chosen. This will be offset by savings made as part of the VOIP rollout.

Projected Savings on Call Charges & Exchange line rental
2009-2010 £53300
2010-2011 £106600

Cost of advertising new number which is an unknown and will form part of a separate comms and marketing project. Although there is not capital spend involved the Voice over IP (VoIP) project costs have been presented to CAIG as part of the EfoC programme.


Section 2 - Who is taking the final decision, where and when

Who is taking the decision
Cabinet

Date, time and location
14 April 2009, 2pm, County Hall, Northampton

Timetable for submission to CMT
The first CMT in March

Reason if key decision
Projected savings in excess of £100k

Reason if this decision has been delayed/withdrawn from a previous plan
N/A

Exemption
N/A


Section 3 - Who is to be consulted, how and when, including relevant scrutiny councillors

Consultees
The proposal has been discussed with Cllr Andre Gonzalez De Savage; Paul Blantern, Director of C&CS and Sue Grace, Head of Customer and Cultural Services.

Has it been considered by the relevant Scrutiny Committee or Scrutiny Councillors
No

County Councillors and Electoral Divisions affected:
All

Is decision included in your Service Plan?:
Yes

Has the finance for this decision been included in your medium term Capital Programme?
Yes


Section 4 - Responsible Officer - Who to contact for more information.

Your Name: Stephen McCarthy
Your Service: IT Division
Your phone number & email address: 01604 236009 smccarthy@northamptonshire.gov.uk

Closing date for consultation/receiving comments:
5 working days before Cabinet meeting

Supporting documents:
Combined number report to CMT

Dave wrote on Apr 15^th, 2009 at 10:59pm:

There will be a cost of £70000 to annual revenue if the 03 option is chosen. This will be offset by savings made as part of the VOIP rollout. Projected Savings on Call Charges & Exchange line rental 2009-2010 £53300 2010-2011 £106600

Leaving aside the utterly lunatic nonsense about the Northampton code being withdrawn (is the telecoms supplier here perhaps another offshoot of Network Europe Group as surely this nonsense must have come from them or a very similar type of dishonest outfit) or some parts of Northamptonshire paying a different price to call 03 the above are useful figures in terms of the financial inducements being made to use 0845 instead of 03.  It appears 03 is ultimately revenue neutral in the long run whereas 0845 is pitched as involving a net financial gain of £70,000.    Of course I suppose for a council that already has a fully Voip based system and 0845 numbers then switching to 03 will appear as a straight revenue loss of £70,000 per annum.  Either way this is a very tiny sum of money indeed in a County Council's total budget of hundreds of millions of pounds a year.

The lunatic misunderstandings about the call costs to 03 in this case are surely compelling evidence for the goons at Ofcom that they are simply not doing their job in properly explaining to the public the different classes of phone number and charging code currently in use in the UK.

Northamptonshire County Council is still using 01604 236 236 as its main contact number. However, register offices are now 0300 126 1010:

http://www.northamptonshire.gov.uk/en/councilservices/community/bdm/register/pages/default.aspx