MORE than 80,000 abandoned phone calls have been made to the Worcestershire Hub in just two years, it has emerged.

The under-pressure council phone line service has come under renewed criticism after new figures emerged showing how around six per cent of calls are failing to be picked up.

Members of the public decided to terminate their calls 80,972 times over the last two financial years.

The service, which employs around 52 people, was handed to an outside company to run back in April, London-based Civica, as part of a deal to save money and pour much-needed new cash into it.

Worcestershire County Council has defended the so-called 'abandonment rate', saying people give up for all sorts of reasons and might not necessarily be unhappy.

But satisfaction rates even for people who did get through to a staff member has fallen over the last two years, from 89 per cent in 2013/14 to 81 per cent last year.

The hub handles public queries on everything from potholes to bus passes on behalf of County Hall and district councils in Worcester and Malvern.

Civica has pledged to save all three authorities a combined £2.6 million by 2023, and will invest in new technology to encourage more people to get their queries answered online or by an automated voice.

The overall number of calls made to the Hub has fallen since 2013, from just over 600,000 a year to 439,000.

Senior bosses at the county council appeared before a meeting of the corporate and communities overview and scrutiny panel today to be grilled on it.

Sarah Daniel, hub data programmes and relationship manager, said: "There are many reasons why people abandon calls - it can be because they don't want to wait, but there are other reasons as well.

"They may be ringing to find out the gritting route and we do try to 'script' messages, so they hear a recorded message saying 'if you're calling about gritting, they will be out at such and such time'."

Sander Kristel, the council's corporate director of commercial and change said: "The five to six per cent abandonment rate you see here, compared to the private sector, is actually very good."

Councillor Kit Taylor, who chairs the panel, said: "If five to six per cent of my customers abandoned me, I'd be hysterical."

The Worcestershire Hub is primarily based around the phone line service, but still has face-to-face customer service desks around the county, with the main one based at The Hive.

Civica is growing in influence around the UK and now runs council, police, fire, school and NHS services at 26 different locations.