http://www.hambleton.gov.uk/Hambleton%20District%20Council/Committees/Thirsk%20A...

Minutes of the meeting of the THIRSK AREA FORUM held at 6.30pm on Tuesday 27 January 2009 at Thirsk Town Hall, Thirsk

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9. How much revenue is collected by HDC by having 0845 as a contact number? (Why isn't a 01609 number supplied?)

Response: The Council does not make any revenue from using the 0845 number. It is supplied to us by Affinity Telecom and has zero cost to the Council. The number was chosen for several reasons. Firstly, calls are not necessarily answered in Northallerton. When someone calls the 0845 number it may be answered either in Stokesley or in Northallerton depending on the availability of Customer Services Officers in those locations. It was felt it may be confusing to use an 01609 number when the call may be answered in Stokesley. Using the 0845 number gives Hambleton the flexibility to use more than one location to answer calls. On most BT call packages 0845 numbers are now free.

An 0845 number is a 'number translation service' and not a true line number, this means that should there be a problem with the phone lines either at Northallerton or Stokesley or there was a problem that meant the staff had to relocate to another office the public would still be able to use the 0845 number. This would not be possible with a 01609 (or other geographic) number and customers would not be able to contact the Council.

NGMsGhost wrote on May 3^rd, 2009 at 11:04am:

Reviewing the Hambleton site on the Internet Archive reveals that they changed around May 2004.

Well at least they have finally seen sense!