Caerphilly County Borough Council has denied claims it is to axe the reception at its headquarters in Tredomen.
The leader of the Plaid Cymru group said the reception at Ty Penallta could be closed to save £108,000.
Cllr Colin Mann said: “I’ve been told by an impeccable source that the main reception is to be closed and boarded up. So much for Labour’s claim of protecting front line services.
“The proposal, I believe, was buried in the budget proposals for 2019/20 with savings of £108,000 earmarked to cover procurement and customer services. Most councillors would have missed this and given the significant change in service it should have been highlighted to members by the Labour administration but, clearly, they preferred a fait accompli.
“The incredible plan, I’m told, is to replace personal service with a self-service point. Some of the present receptionists will end up wandering around with laptops to help members of the public, many of whom won’t have a clue of how to use the new system. If reception in the council HQ is being abolished, what is the prospect for other front line services?
“Some of our most vulnerable residents, who probably go to Penallta House because they are not comfortable with technology, will be confronted with this and that’s not acceptable. The Labour administration should think again on this. They seem to have plenty of money for legal fees.”
Cllr Colin Gordon, the council’s cabinet member for corporate services, said: “I must clarify that there have been no discussions to remove the reception at our headquarters Penallta House.
“The £108,000 savings in the 2019/20 budget that Cllr Mann refers to in his press release is simply a management restructure which has no impact on front line services or service delivery to members of the public.
“We are currently undertaking a trial of self-service scanning in order to enhance our services to the public and to speed up response times at Customer Services at Penallta House and we are currently in discussions to further enhance the reception offering, with additional services available to the public via a suite of digital tools.
“This approach has been well-received to date and is reflected in our recently adopted Customer and Digital Services strategy.
“We appreciate that not everyone is comfortable with using digital technology and will continue to provide face to face services to our residents where appropriate. I must re-emphasise that there have been no discussions to date to consider abolishing the reception at Penallta House.”