NEIGHBOURHOOD council offices will close and up to 20 staff will be made redundant as part of a reorganisation plan designed to improve customer services.

Drop-in centres across Stoke-on-Trent will also stop taking cash payments.

The shake-up will affect 227 frontline workers in the city authority's customer access, housing services and community development departments.

Most will be relocated to one of six new one-stop shops around the city.

Reception facilities at all the council's 12 existing local centres will shut under the proposals, affecting up to 19,500 council tenants and many more council taxpayers who currently use the centres to pay bills or discuss service issues.

Residents will instead have to visit one of six new one-stop shops in Bentilee, Stoke, Tunstall, Longton or Hanley, where there will be two.

Customers will be encouraged to make rent or council tax payments at their Post Office, bank or via the council website.

Jeanette McGarry, newly appointed director of housing, environmental and neighbourhood services, pictured, said the shake-up was not a cost-cutting exercise but would provide a more helpful service to residents.

She said: "This is a really exciting time when we will be working to make lasting changes that will benefit people across the city.

"The aim is to get more staff out on the streets resolving issues for people, not sitting in offices doing paperwork. We want to make sure there is a higher customer service standard across Stoke-on-Trent because at the moment we recognise there is room for improvement.

"We need to make sure we understand and meet local needs and make sure our staff are well trained and fully equipped to carry out their roles.

"This will be one of the biggest consultations with staff that the council has ever undertaken, but it is important that we get these changes right and make access to services easier for residents."

Head of neighbourhood services Denise Grant said in addition to the one-stop shops, the council would hold regular surgeries to enable residents to speak to officers and raise any concerns.

She said: "The neighbourhood surgeries will be a useful way of gaining access to areas such as housing estates, and the number of surgeries which are held in an area will be entirely based on need."

But Chell Heath Residents' Association chairman Jim Gibson, aged 56, fears the changes will alienate service users.

He said: "I think it is going to detract from customer service, not improve it, because people want to deal with a familiar face. If they stop taking cash payments and put machines in it will be a disaster, because they are difficult to use. A lot of people, particularly elderly residents, like to pay cash and go and speak to people about their bills, but I fear this is going to drive customers away."

Consultation on the proposals will run until September 18, when officers will begin drawing up more detailed plans for implementation in February.

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