NORWEB has officially unveiled its new £3.5 million hi-tech customer care headquarters in Bolton.

About 150 jobs have been created in the centre on Manchester Road and another 20 people are set to be taken on in the next few months.

All customer enquiries during office hours from the whole Norweb region are now handled by specially trained operators on a high speed response computer system.

In the next few months, the Bolton centre will become a 24 hour a day, 365 days a year operation.

Domestic customer services manager Peter Longworth said: "This is an exciting development for Bolton. It has taken us a few months to set up the operation and a lot of hard work.

"We couldn't have done it without the great co-operation of the staff who have all gone through a detailed training programme."

He is confident that the Bolton centre has a secure future whatever happens in the expected takeover by North West Water.

"So much time and money has been invested in this that I'm confident it has a good future ahead of it," Mr Longworth said.

Before a major Norweb shake-up, customers phoned local centres around the North West in Kendal, Oldham, Preston and Manchester as well as Bolton.

The new centre expects to handle about four million phone calls a year about bills, no supply, meter reading, moving home and budget schemes.

But customers will only be charged for their call at local rate wherever they are in the region.

Special training to handle the new equipment has been developed in partnership with Bolton Bury Training and Enterprise Council.

And one of the final groups of new staff were undergoing training as Mayor of Bolton, Cllr Alan Rushton, officially unveiled a plaque at the formal opening of the centre.

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