COUNCILLORS have voted through major changes to how Dumbarton and the Vale residents access West Dunbartonshire services.

Council call centres will be open fewer hours, the authority will push direct debit and online payments even harder, and customer services will be relocated in Alexandria.

But a last-minute amendment saw councillors on the corporate services committee last week avoid ending cash and card payments at three One Stop Shops.

Concerns had been raised about that change given organisations such as community councils had not been notified of new systems that would affect them.

There were further worries about relocating customer services from the Mitchell Way building to Alexandria Library, but those will now go ahead.

Councillor Danny Lennie said the April 1 deadline for moving payments to post offices or PayPoints was too quick a turnaround, given that notifying residents hadn’t even started yet.

He said: “April is extremely optimistic if you have not started consultation on it.”

But Malcolm Bennie, corporate communications manager, insisted there was no window where anyone would have an inability to pay. Residents would still be be able to use the Giro service in banks.

He said: “I think it’s got to have an April deadline.”

Stephen Daly, customer service manager for the council and who wrote the report with the recommendations, told the committee ultimately residents could pay at more than 80 points compared to just the current three One Stop Shops run by the council.

He said stopping payments at those three points would remove 60 per cent of footfall and allow more time and attention to genuinely vulnerable residents who do need more support with their concerns.

Mr Daly added: “There’s an ambition to save money but transform how we deliver services to the most vulnerable people in our society.”

Labour councillors also expressed concern about reducing the number of hours during which residents can call the authority, branding it a “step backwards”.

But council bosses insisted it would only affect a fraction of callers and allow them to improve service at peak time, during the lunch period.

Emergency calls, such as for housing repairs, will be unaffected.

New contact centre times will be 9am to 4.30pm and the council will also introduce web chat for residents.

The welfare fund team will cease to run seven days a week and end weekend service, affecting about two per cent of applications for crisis grants to vulnerable residents. There will be extra staffing during the week instead.

Customer services at the Mitchell Way building will move 300 metres to Alexandria Library.

An amendment by the SNP means the council will consult on changing the payments systems under the budget consultation process.

Elsewhere at the meeting, plans to change library hours have been kicked into the long grass.

The SNP moved a last-minute motion at last week’s corporate services committee which would have changed library hours across West Dunbartonshire, but particular for Faifley, Duntocher and Parkhall libraries. All three would have seen their hours dramatically cut.

Instead, the issue will be put to consultation and return to a future meeting. The SNP said they hoped a new community education centre could be built to replace Skypoint in Faifley and that would deliver a new library more residents would use.

After the meeting Labour pointed out it was the SNP who previously pushed for the library’s closure at Skypoint in 2010.

It was then re-opened at the back of Edinbarnet Primary after the 2012 local elections.