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Blaenau Gwent Council’s Community Hubs which offer access to Council services in local communities are to extend their opening hours and days of operation from Monday 26 July 2021.

The hubs are located centrally in local libraries managed by Aneurin Leisure Trust and provide advice and information on a range of Council services. The hubs opened on 21 June 1 day per week in each community and they have welcomed many customers and helped with a wide range of queries.

The hubs are designed to help people who need to access face-to-face assistance for council services.

Residents who visit the hubs are pleased with the new service especially if they are unable to self-serve for a range of reasons or there are barriers including literacy issues; a lack of digital knowledge; language differences or physical or mental disability.

We’ve already helped residents to book household waste centre slots; apply for blue badges and help with benefits and housing queries.

At the Community hub residents can access the following services initially:

Information on Council Tax/Non-Domestic rates including discounts, payments and recovery
Information about Benefits including Universal Credit, Council Tax reduction, free school meals, school clothing grants and benefit overpayments
Make Blue Badge applications
Access Community Services - including bulky waste bookings, waste/recycling timetables, HWRC bookings, and the ordering of recycling receptacles
Pick up waste bags - including dog waste, food waste and hygiene waste.

The hubs are designed to meet demand from residents and are part of the Council’s wider review of customer service delivery as it seeks to improve its self-service and digital offerings for those who can access services in this way.

As part of the response to Covid-19 pandemic, the customer service facilities previously available at the Civic Centre were suspended in early 2020. Through our hub network we can now offer more choice and easier access to services for residents in the heart of their communities.

Councillor Nigel Daniels, Leader of Blaenau Gwent Council commented:

“I am pleased that we can now build on the initial success of the community hubs and extend the service to meet the needs of some of our most vulnerable residents. I know that residents value face to face contact to access the services that are important to them and the hubs are helping to bring access to these services closer to the public.

It is also important that we have the widest possible range of channels available for residents both traditional and digital and we will continue to develop our services delivered through these channels as part of our customer services strategy.”

New opening hours