Kidsgrove Customer Service Centre

Jeanette Hilton says: “Residents in the Kidsgrove area will soon benefit from having
a Customer Service Centre here at the town hall.”

“This will be a single location where our customers can go to use a range of council
and partner services.”

“At the moment we are finding out what people would like us to provide at the new
centre.”

“We have already carried out one survey and as a result we will be providing council
tax and benefits services, waste management and environmental health and bus

passes.”

“The Citizens’ Advice Bureau and Registrar Service will also be part of the centre.”

“We are now going to talk to residents in Kidsgrove to see what else they would like
to see at the centre.”

Reporter asks: “Ok Jules so what would you like to see at the new centre?”

Resident 1 says: “I’d like some information for mums and toddler groups, I think
when you’re a new mum especially and if you’re new to the area finding places to go
and where to take your children can be quite daunting, don’t think they are advertised
quite well and I think it’s only word of mouth that you get to know about play groups
and actually going in the first time can be quite scary if you’ve got no-one to go with,
so I think those sort of things would be really useful and it could also have some
things where mums can go for help, places to go, because sometimes you don’t want
to talk to your health visitor and sometimes it’s so much easier to chat about a little
problem with another mum so I think something like that would be very useful, sort of
like a drop-in centre.”

Reporter asks: “Thank you very much, Penny what ideas would you have for the
centre?”

Resident 2 answers: “Somewhere where you could go to talk to somebody, I know
we’ve got Citizens’ Advice, but sometimes you don’t want that sort of advice in depth
you just want somewhere where you can go and find out who’s local, who could be
helpful and another thing is I’ve got two older teenagers so perhaps a drug related
counsellor or somebody that you could go and talk to for advice on that sort of thing
or where to go to you know or something like that, two generations-she’s got the
younger ones and I’ve got the older ones, something like that might work.”

Reporter asks: “Thank you very much. Sue, do you think the new centre will be
good for the town?”

Resident 3 answers: “Yes most definitely, I think it’ll be a great benefit to quite a
few people in this area.”

Reporter asks: “And what kind of services in particular do you think you would be
good for local residents?”

Resident 3 answers: “Customer advice, anything in that area where it’s only open
one afternoon a week- if it could be open a few days a week it would be of benefit to
people.”

Jeanette Hilton says: “It was really interesting to hear residents’ views.”

“Our first Customer Service Centre at the Guildhall in Newcastle has been a great
success – it’s centrally located and offers a wide range of services to residents.”

“We are confident that we can create a similar high quality service here in
Kidsgrove.”

“Our efforts will be focused on seeing if we can match what residents want with what
we are able to provide.”