OUR experience of ringing the council is good. The operators pick up calls quickly, have a friendly telephone manner, listen to the inquiry and direct you to the right department.

But this is inefficient, apparently. That is why the council must spend £170,000 on its Corporate Contact Centre, which sounds as warm and welcoming as an iceberg.

Once an automated phone system is introduced, we fear the robots will gradually take over. Soon callers will be instructed to "use your telephone keypad to enter your details". An attempt to speak to someone about a blocked drain or an icy path will become a digital obstacle course.

Press the wrong number and you are back at the start, and all the while your phone bill is increasing.

Automated telephone services are a bugbear of modern life. In a survey last year, Citizens Advice found that 97 per cent of us find at least one aspect of using them annoying.

Aware of growing public frustration with call centres, some banks are reinstating direct telephone contact between customers and their local branch.

But York council appears determined to buck that trend.

Pensioners particularly may struggle to cope with the new system. Precisely this worry was voiced at a meeting of the York Older People's Assembly earlier this week.

Before inflicting this impersonal service on callers, the council should ask whether residents want it. Our guess is that most most will dial N for No.

Updated: 11:27 Thursday, July 28, 2005