Derby council's automated phone system ageist, says blue badge holder

Cliff Lowe said he chose the option to speak to a human - but it would not transfer him

A man has criticised Derby City Council's new automated phone lines for being too difficult for older people to use.

Cliff Lowe, 71, said he tried to use the voice recognition system to request a blue badge parking permit but it did not understand his instructions.

The council said callers also had the option to speak to a human.

But Mr Lowe said the system would not transfer him - and human operators did not answer when he called direct.

Mr Lowe, from Allestree, has been given less than two years to live after contracting an aggressive form of blood cancer and cannot carry anything or walk more than a few hundred metres after several surgical proceedures.

He said he tried to call the council about his replacement blue badge after he had waited four months for it to arrive.

"I got some Artificial Intelligence lady asking me questions and I tried to answer them and she didn't understand me," he said.

"I think I speak perfectly good English but I couldn't get anywhere, so I threw the towel in."

Mr Lowe said after multiple frustrating phone calls left him going round in circles, he decided to visit the council's city headquarters in person and was given more phone numbers to try, but said "they never picked up".

"There's lots of people out there suffering, who can't get onto the internet and don't know what to do," he said.

"They're suffering and it's a bit of ageism, I think."

Mr Lowe's wife Janet has also reported problems using the council's online forms

Mr Lowe's wife Janet also needs a blue badge due to her spinal condition.

She said even though she used online services regularly for banking and shopping, she could not complete the online forms and was left "feeling useless".

"I've been up against the wall totally for weeks and weeks because it kept throwing me out at a certain stage and told me to try again, with no more details of how to try again," she said.

"You can order a death certificate easier than get a blue badge."

The council's own monitoring shows 9,384 calls were picked up by the automated system, but 1,534 were abandoned by the caller.

A Derby City Council spokesperson said the digital assistants were introduced to give staff more time to handle more complex queries and the authority planned to use the system more "in the longer term".

"Our Digital Assistants are designed to deliver quick and efficient responses to common queries, freeing up our customer service team to provide higher levels of support where needed," they said.

"We recognise that some customers prefer to speak to one of our human advisors, and during opening hours they can be transferred to one from Tuesday to Thursday between 9am and 1pm."

The spokesperson confirmed waiting lists for blue badges remained at up to 20 weeks but said staff were being redeployed to tackle the backlog.

They said: "Two are already trained and working in the service, and they will be joined by a further four by the end of October, giving the equivalent of four additional full-time members of staff."