We’d like to apologise to the community for the problems during our recent transition to new finance and IT systems and errors made in recent mailouts.
Some of the issues over recent weeks include:
- Difficulties with the new phone number/switchboard
- Problems making payments in person and over the phone
- Lack of clarity in the invitation to set up a direct debit for water bills
- Poor arrangements in the Town Hall reception area
We’ve heard your feedback and are working towards fixing any remaining issues and finding more appropriate solutions that better meet the needs of the community. We will provide another update soon to offer more clarity on how we are responding to this feedback to improve contact with the council.
In the case of the mailouts, residents received letters in Cornwall Council branded envelopes for both Council Tax and water bills. This happened because our business mail provider was not given the correct Council of the Isles of Scilly branded envelopes. We want to assure residents that this was an administrative error and does not reflect the relationship we have with Cornwall Council. The Council of the Isles of Scilly is an independent unitary authority and will continue to be so. We have put measures in place to ensure this won’t happen again.
Cornwall Council are providing IT and finance functions for us as part of an arrangement to reduce costs and improve our processes. We’re confident that this will bring benefits despite some of the issues we’ve had over recent weeks.
Once again, we’re sorry for the problems you’ve had interacting with your council. We will continue to listen to feedback about how we can make things work for the community.
If you would like to get in touch to provide feedback on the new arrangements or any other matter, please don’t hesitate to contact us. You can call us on 0300 1234 105 or email enquiries@scilly.gov.uk.