Last night, the Prime Minister announced new measures aimed at bolstering social distancing to help prevent the spread of coronavirus among the local population.
Following this instruction, all council employees based at the civic centre will either be carrying out their usual duties working from home, as advised by Government, or redeployed to the council’s efforts to support the most vulnerable residents of the city.
The Council’s Customer Service team is still contactable via online webforms, email and telephone available from 9am until 5pm, Monday to Thursday and 9am until 4.30pm on Friday.
Payments will still be able to be made online at Coronavirus advice and information and via the automated payment line 0800 180 4464 as normal.
Cash payments are temporarily suspended, and customers are being advised to transfer funds directly into the council’s bank account, using their reference number.
The civic centre car park will also close until further notice.
Councillor Ian Brookfield, Leader of the Council said: “Despite our desire to keep the civic centre open, the health and wellbeing of our residents and employees has to be our top priority during this current national and local emergency.
“Therefore, we have taken the decision to close the civic centre until further notice to keep people safe and out of hospital, so our fantastic NHS colleagues have a fighting chance of treating those most in need.
“I would urge city residents to do their bit and support their local doctors and nurses by, to put it bluntly, staying at home.”
Steve Evans, Cabinet Member for City Environment at City of Wolverhampton Council said: “Our teams will be working hard across the council to put the people of Wolverhampton first.
“I would like to strongly encourage residents to make use of our online services before contacting our Customer Services team by telephone if they can. This will be more effective for you and will reduce calls coming in to the call centre at a time when they are going to be needed more than ever before to support our city’s most vulnerable residents during this most challenging time.
“On behalf of the city council, I would like to take the opportunity to thank you for your cooperation and understanding and urge everyone to stay at home and be safe.”
