A NEW town hall call centre which Bolton Council claims will revolutionise the way inquiries are dealt with is up and running -- but the change has already caused some confusion.

Some callers have been left thinking they had the wrong number as staff greet callers with the words "Access Bolton".

One councillor has described the naming of the centre as "corporate nonsense."

But council leaders insist the changes will lead to a much better service for anyone dealing with the authority.

At the moment, 50 per cent of calls to the council are going through to the call centre.

But eventually all inquiries from members of the public will be routed there and council leaders expect Access Bolton to deal with up to a million callers a year.

The thinking behind it is that the call centre staff, who are still based in the town hall and employed by the council, will attempt to deal with as many inquiries as possible personally rather than passing them on to the relevant departments.

At present the centre is only dealing with council tax and general inquiries, but the intention is that it will attempt to handle all inquiries by autumn.

work is under way to create a so-called "one stop shop" so Access Bolton will also be able to deal with council service users face-to-face and even via the internet. Half the ground floor of the town hall is being transformed into a massive open plan centre.

Cllr Laurie Williamson, council executive member with responsibility for the call centre, said: "This is only the beginning of a series of radical changes at the town hall. We are transforming the way the council operates.

"In the long term, it's going to make contacting the council much easier for residents and they will notice a more efficient service.

"It is going to be a gradual process as information about council services is going to be phased into the new contact centre and I'm sure it won't be without teething problems. But we hope that by next year we will be resolving around 80per cent of inquiries at that first call which will make a dramatic difference."

However, Liberal Democrat councillor David Wilkinson questioned the value of the name change and said the public were only interested in the quality of the service they received.

Cllr Wilkinson said: "It's corporate nonsense as far as I'm concerned. I don't know why they have to say that. People ring up the town hall because they want the town hall.

"It's just a case of 'We've got a new call centre so let's give it a new name'. I couldn't give a monkey's what it's called.

"All people are interested in is whether response times are faster and whether they have their queries dealt with."

A council spokesman said any confusion about the contact centre's name and work should be dispelled as it becomes better known.

She said: "It's at a very early stage at the moment but already staff in the centre have received more than 5,000 calls so the name Access Bolton is being established."