NORWEB is creating more than 100 new jobs in Bolton - to speed up its response to customers' phone calls.

The company has already begun recruiting and training 110 new staff for its Bolton Call Centre in Manchester Road.

The process started in June and by mid-October the centre will have 500 trained staff available to answer calls during peak times.

Customer Services Director Bob Spedding said: "Our research shows that customers are generally satisfied with the outcome of their calls to NORWEB, but we are concerned that in some cases we simply are not quick enough in picking up the phone."

The £3.5 million customer care headquarters takes enquiries from the whole NORWEB region.

The company actively encourages contact by telephone rather than letter.

Recently the company launched an initiative to improve the quality and effectiveness of its response, increasing the time taken to deal with each call.

But this led occasionally to long queues of calls at certain times of the day.

"We have now taken positive steps to ensure that customers benefit from a significant improvement in the speed with which their calls are answered," Mr Spedding said.

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