COUNCIL chiefs are being urged to be mindful of people who struggle to use the internet in the dash to turn services 'digital'.

The Labour group at Worcestershire County Council says it is concerned about vulnerable people being left behind under efforts to save money.

The fears have been rubbished by the Conservative leadership, which says councillors shouldn't confuse so-called 'digital services' with excluding people who don't go online.

Since the start of May, the county council has launched a deal with a company called Civica to run the shared customer services in Worcestershire.

It includes the Hub customer service contact centre, which has its main walk-in base at The Hive, and the phone system used by 23,000 people a month.

The company is being tasked with pushing self-service via the internet to reduce the number of calls coming in, with the deal aimed at saving up to £2.6 million by 2023.

Labour Councillor Paul Denham, speaking during a full council meeting, said: "I continue to have concerns, including for those with disabilities.

"I've been told that people visiting the Hub used to get a great deal of support in accessing digital services, and that the level of support has dramatically reduced.

"In the contract, does it say we must provide digital assistance to those who need it and if so, who is monitoring it?"

Labour Councillor Joseph Baker says is one of his wards in Redditch "40 per cent of residents are unable to access digital services" and asked for similar assurances.

Conservative Councillor John Campion, who sits in the decision-making cabinet, told them he felt the comments were misguided.

"Please don't paint this move of encouraging as many people wanting to use self-service as we can, as 'excluding those who can't'," he said.

"Absolutely, there are lots of people who either can't or don't want to do so, and we must have resources for those people."

He told the chamber the council has recently invested in a new digital mobile library bus, saying it will help reduce "digital isolation", and also mentioned the massive superfast broadband scheme, which will deliver top class web access to 95 per cent of properties by 2018, should people be interested.

The council is hoping to make as many services as possible accessible online, saying it saves taxpayers money and provides more choice.