Wiltshire Council is committed to putting customers at the heart of everything it does.

A report which will go before Cabinet on January 26 outlines an ongoing four-year programme to continually improve customer services and ensure everyone can access the council as easily as possible.

Part of the plan is already underway with a move to take face-to-face services to the wider community using council-owned buildings. This could include weekly surgeries where customer service staff help people sort out their problems and queries or put them in touch with officers who can from council-owned buildings like libraries.

This will mean greater access to council services for those who live in rural areas in the county.

Mere Information Point has been running for seven years at Mere library and is a great example of a rural one stop shop offering a huge range of services including the library, tourist information, police drop in surgeries, health matters advisory service, CAB, the Salisbury registrar, care support link scheme and many other public services.

The council is listening to Wiltshire's residents and has extended its telephony opening hours to 8.30am to 5.30pm every weekday. It is now consulting residents on whether it should extend the opening times further to fit around people's busy lives.

The website will also be improved ensuring it is easy to use and really meets the individual needs of the people who use it.

The report looks at ways in which the council can work with the public to make sure services meet the needs of individual communities and are not just 'one size fits all'.

Head of Customer Access, John Rogers, said: "Making these changes will mean that customers get better services which are more tailored to their needs, are easier and more convenient for customers to access, and which are delivered more efficiently".