A MAJOR revamp of a North Yorkshire council headquarters has been branded a total waste of money.

The £141,000 flagship scheme for Hambleton District Council's civic centre in Northallerton came under attack as part of a raft of measures aimed at changing the way the authority does business.

Councillors have already approved plans for a refit at Stone Cross to create the authority's first one-stop contact centre for telephone callers.

The work marks the first stage of plans to deliver all council services electronically by 2005, a Government requirement.

In a new-style full council meeting on Tuesday, leader Coun Arthur Barker spoke about improving access to services. He cited various projects such as joining the county council's wide area network; changing management structure and redesigning the Stone Cross reception area.

"This is a whole change in the way we do business and 80pc of calls will be dealt with at the first point of contact," he said.

Coun Barker said the cabinet would set the authority's budget next week and that the net amount of Government aid would be going up by 0.88pc.

But because of changes in calculations in some areas, it was likely the decrease would be 1pc, said Coun Barker.

Coun David Murkett was concerned about the impact on the 15-year-old civic centre. "I hope we won't lose sight of our original pledge for Stone Cross to be user-friendly," he said. "This is very important to us as councillors."

Coun John Coulson said: "This refit is a total waste of money and at the wrong time. We keep reading about what we are spending in the reception area and it is wrong.

"People will still have to be referred to someone else after they make contact here.

"We have a lovely reception area. We could not ask for better. The scheme is going too far. I thought there would just be a bit of rejigging, not a £141,000 project."

Coun David Webster said: "I totally support what Coun Coulson is saying."

Coun Jan Marshall said it should be possible to improve the phone system without changing the foyer. "I am cautious about this. People are starting to raise it with me as an issue," she said.

Coun Barker defended the scheme. "It will be very user-friendly for today's age," he said. "The centre has served us well, but this is moving the council forward in delivering e-government, in which we have no choice.

"I respect Coun Coulson's opinion, but I do not agree. We will get good value for money from this. It is a whole process of re-engineering how we do business and hopefully there will be savings.

"The whole orientation will ensure telephone contact is improved and that there is better contact by other means."

The new format for council meetings is aimed at creating more scope for debate and involvement for members.

Chairman Coun David Smith said: "The idea is to make meetings more stimulating and interesting for all councillors."

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