New Partnership For Out Of Hours Service

7th April 2012

As of Tuesday 10 April 2012, The Highland Council's out of hours calls for emergencies relating to council housing repairs, property and homelessness, as well as roads, street lighting and environmental services will now be managed by Northern Constabulary working in partnership with The Highland Council. Calls will be dealt with by specialist staff from Northern Constabulary at the Force's Operations Centre, Old Perth Road in Inverness.

The out of hours service runs from 5.00pm to 9.00am and customers accessing the services will experience no change. Anyone wishing to report an out of hours emergency in connection with roads, flooding or street lighting and environmental services should call 01349 886690 and for council housing, property and homelessness related emergencies the telephone number is 0845 700 2005.

During normal working hours of 9am to 5pm the telephone number for reporting any issues in relation to roads, flooding and street lighting is 01349 886601 while the telephone number for council house repairs is 01349 886602.

The Highland Council's Director of Housing and Property Steve Barron said: "This partnership approach brings with it many benefits for customers and for both partners, making use of the highly trained staff at Northern Constabulary's Force Operations Centre. Callers will continue to receive prompt and effective responses to repairs and homelessness problems plus directing emergency calls to Northern Constabulary also means that emergencies will be dealt with centrally, enabling faster and easier coordination should a multi-agency response be required."

Chief Superintendent Julian Innes said: "Northern Constabulary has long been committed to a partnership approach to sharing and delivering services where this provides both an efficient and improved level of service to the public, making the best use of our operational assets. This is a very good example of that partnership approach coming to fruition."