Ballymena Borough Council has decided to increase its service charge on some taxpayers who ring up by switching from a 0845 number to a 0844 g6 number.

Looking back at the contact page on the Wayback Machine shows that the 0845 number was published on 19th June this year, so the change happened sometime in the last six months.

Today, the contact page and the footer on each page of the website gives the telephone number as "0844 544 7640 or 02825 660300".

Taxpayers are given the choice of number, or at least those who look on the website are. There is nothing to say why two different numbers are given nor is there any guidance as to which any individual should use. When the 0845 number was given, it was on its own. So the Council has moved from a state where everyone is charged to where some are charged more and some do not pay any service charge.

Whoever wrote this is obviously doesn't understand that the code for the whole of Northern Ireland is 028 as 02825 has never been a dialling code!