NEW CITY HALL CALL CENTRE UP AND RUNNING NEXT YEAR

A NEW 24-hour telephone information service in four languages: Castillian, Catalan, English and German is to be set up by Palma Town Council as of February next year. Deputy for Tax and Public Funding at City Hall, Pedro Alvarez of the centre-right Partido Popular party, confirmed the call centre will be operating 365 days of the year. The service forms part of a Modernisation and Quality plan set in motion by local authorities in 2005. Alvarez confirmed that the agreement for the setting up of the service had been approved by regional government at the end of this last week, adding that the information line will be referred to as an “all-purpose telephone information service.” The deputy pointed out that at the moment, there is already an information service running from central Town Hall numbers (971-225500 and 971225900).
LIVE INFORMATION
It operates from Monday to Friday between the hours of 8am and 2pm, similar to the way that the Palma Town Council information number (010) runs at present, Monday to Friday from 9am-9pm. There are also specialised telephone information numbers such as 092 which is a Local Police line; 112, which is a contact number for emergency services, and 080 which gives direct contact with the Fire Station. “With the setting up of the call centre, residents will receive personal attention at whatever time they call regardless of the hour of the day, and not as in the past where questions had to be asked at a fixed time,” said Alvarez. The deputy said that the cost of setting up such a service will be 870'000 euros and added that at the beginning, information will be provided by a team of between 25 and 30 people, five of whom will always be on “guard” duty. An option of a callback service is also under review to deal with the case of people calling the information centre and there is no answer at that specific moment. Finally, he signalled that the new service will provide a means for citizens to be able to present complaints and suggestions to the Town Hall, in the same way that they can already do on the website www.palmademallorca.es.