A NEW £53,000 telephone system will be introduced within weeks to help South Lakeland District Council respond to residents' concerns.

The council's cabinet this week passed plans to introduce a system that it hopes will clear up to 80 per cent of callers' worries straight away, from abandoned vehicles to yellow lines.

Mike Jones, SLDC's director of customer services, said residents would get a faster response than they did under the present system.

The system will be shared with Barrow Borough Council but maintained by SLDC.

He added the system could improve the council's reaction to emergencies such as last week's flooding, as routine calls could be diverted to Barrow. This would free SLDC to deal with the more immediate problems.

Mr Jones said every call would be logged with a number, and the system would monitor how long people waited and how many people hung up.

Setting up the system will be entirely paid for by government funding intended to push councils towards more digital operations, or so-called e-government.

Running costs of £11,513 will be shared between the two councils, but Barrow will pay £5,000 to SLDC for maintenance, meaning the cost to SLDC will be less than £800.