Residents could soon be paying their council tax at their local Post Office or corner shop if plans by the council are approved.
Caerphilly County Borough Council’s cabinet has set out its first phase of plans to save £2.1m – with the council tax scheme a key feature.
The initial report deals with half a million pounds of potential savings by rationalising the council’s events, marketing and communications service, transferring cash office functions to Post Offices and closing some Customer First Centres.
Six of seven council cash offices are to close. The offices are in Blackwood, Pontlottyn and the council headquarters in Ystrad Mynach, as well as smaller sites in Risca, Newbridge, Bargoed and Caerphilly.
Councillor Colin Mann, deputy leader and cabinet member for resources and sustainability, said: “Our payments process currently sees about 370,000 face to face transactions across eight sites within the county borough. This new proposal would involve the introduction of an electronic swipe card as a means of payment that allows transactions to be made at a significant number of locations, including all local Post Offices, petrol stations and shops. We think developing these links is the way forward and could save up to £139,000 per annum.
“The report also looks at the current Customer First provision across the county borough and reflects that, if the swipe card is taken forward, there will be less need for single site offices. Options will include using main libraries to deliver more customer services and the greater use of electronic access to council services. We estimate we can save nearly £250,000 over the next four years in this area.”
Reducing the team which communicates with the residents shows a possible saving of between £178,169 and £434,932. This follows a cut made earlier this year in reducing the expenditure on the council’s household newspaper ‘Newsline’ by nearly £50,000 through producing only six editions per year
Cllr Lindsay Whittle, leader of Caerphilly Council, said: “All of these options are about taking our services closer to the people, and officers have put forward some exciting and innovating solutions. We know some staff may be displaced by these proposals but we will make every effort to deploy them in other parts of the authority as we are managing our vacancies very well.”
Cabinet is due to take a final decision in November.