East Lancashire's biggest local authority is to spend £458,000 on new town hall phones.

The all-purpose Blackburn with Darwen Council needs to replace its telephony system before BT switches off its conventional PSTN landlines in December 2025 in favour of an internet-based digital system.

The move to commence the procurement of a new Unified Communication Solution Telephony for the authority is revealed in an executive decision notice.

Its Digital and Customer Services boss Cllr Mahfooz Hussain says in a report to colleagues: "The executive board previously approved a programme of works which included the introduction of the new telephony solution in June 2022.

"Due to a shortage of staff in the department and with other projects taking priority this was delayed but they are now in a position to proceed.

"The current telephony solution runs across multiple separate systems which is complex to manage and problematic when issues arise.

"The proposed unified communications solution will offer a consistent set of products to manage all of the council’s requirements in one single system.

"The department already holds a revenue budget for unified communications of £120,000 per annum and a capital budget of £338,000 it is expected that any new solution should be provided from within this budget envelope.

"Communication is at the core of every business. It enables collaboration among colleagues, aids productivity, and can lead to excellent customer experiences. Making sure staff are equipped with the right tools is key to effective communication.

"The council currently uses Skype for Business for external calling and Microsoft Teams for mainly internal processes, having two systems causes confusion with staff and results in staff receiving calls across both platforms.

"The current Skype for Business system being used is coming to end of life giving the council no option but to replace this system over the next two years.

"The council also still uses a number of PSTN lines (traditional phone lines) these are used predominantly for lift lines, alarm lines etc.

"These lines need to be replaced by December 2025 due to the service being withdrawn by BT Openreach.

"The tender will also include for the winning provider to work with us to provide alternative digital telephony solutions to replace these.

"There are currently too many ways of contacting staff internally.

"Due to the lack of seamless communication solutions, this can result in having multiple calls ringing in across the various platforms. Simplifying this process would be beneficial for both staff and external customers.

"The current Skype for Business solution is going end of life in January 2024 with extended support at an additional cost available until December 2025."