Geographical phone number

Josh Smith made this Freedom of Information request to Norwich City Council

The request was partially successful.

From: Josh Smith

19 July 2008

Dear Sir or Madam,

Under the Freedom of Information Act, I request a geographical (ie
01x/02x) equivalent or alternative telephone number to the
Council's current non-geographic one (0844 980 3333).

Yours faithfully,

Josh Smith

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From: Lambert, Chris
Norwich City Council

21 July 2008

Dear Mr Smith,

Thank you for your email.

Norwich City Council has introduced an 0844 telephone number which
replaced several 01603 numbers. The change of telephone number means
customers will need just need one telephone number when contacting the
council about any matter and will improve customer services.

The former 01603 numbers have been replaced and are no longer available.
There is no alternative or equivalent 01/02 phone number.

Yours sincerely

Chris Lambert
Democratic Services Officer
Norwich City Council
01603 212490
[email address]

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From: Josh Smith

21 July 2008

Hi Chris,

Thanks for your response.
I find it hard to believe that the council is no longer contactable
on any 01603 number - your claim would appear to be refuted by the
inclusion of such a number in your email signature.
To clarify - there is not single switchboard, office, department or
any other area of the council that is reachable to your electors by
a geographical telephone number, in order to bypass the (often
prohibitively expensive, especially from mobile phone or other
non-BT networks) 0844 number?

Yours sincerely,

Josh Smith

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From: Josh Smith

6 September 2008

Hi Chris,

I noticed you have yet to respond to my request for a clarification
- by my records, you are legally required to have responded by 19
August 2008 and so are now in violation of the Freedom of
Information Act.

When can I expect a response?

Yours sincerely,

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From: Lambert, Chris
Norwich City Council

10 September 2008

Dear Mr Smith,

Thank you for your email.

The former 01603 numbers have been replaced and are no longer available.
There is not a switchboard which is contactable using a geographical
telephone number.

The new number - 0844 980 3333 - will not cost the public any more to
call from a landline and will be charged at 3p a minute. Charges are
local rate (non geographical).

Many officers of the council have a direct dial telephone number on
which they can be contacted and these are geographical numbers.

Yours sincerely

Chris Lambert
Democratic Services Officer
Norwich City Council
01603 212490
[email address]

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Richard McMillan left an annotation (17 October 2008)

See the following article :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-geograp...
"When calling 0844, 0845, 0870 and 0871 numbers, part of the cost of the call is paid to the recipient;"

An interesting request might be one requesting documents relating to the decision or motivation to change to an 0844 number.

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