May 23, 2012 -- Two council contact centre jobs were axed in favour of a new automated phone system – which failed on the first day.

Residents were unable to contact the council for several hours last week after the new digital system was overloaded with calls.

One full-time and one part-time post were cut in a bid to save money.

Crawley Borough Council installed it on May 14 but the phones, which work through the town hall's IT system, could not cope with the capacity of calls.

No one could dial in or out for about two hours.

The posts included one person who was employed to maintain the old phone system. The new system will be maintained by IT staff.

A council spokesman said: "We experienced some teething problems immediately following the switchover involving line capacity, but these were resolved within a couple of hours. The system is now working properly.

"We apologise to customers who experienced problems trying to call the council and thank them for their patience."

Posted by Veronica Silva Cusi, news correspondent
Source: http://www.thisissussex.co.uk