September 2011 saw the opening of the fully renovated Oxford City Council Customer Service Centre in St Aldates. The new centre has been designed to allow residents to access advice in a more convenient way.

The new centre, which has a spacious open plan layout, will provide a range of services such as providing advice on council tax, housing benefit, and planning applications and it will have information about environmental and waste management issues.

Val Smith, Labour City Councillor for Blackbird Leys and Cabinet Member for Customer Centres and Regeneration, said: "The new centre looks fantastic and provides residents with access to a wide range of council services. I think everyone will agree that this is a fantastic improvement to the old centre.

"It also offers people the opportunity to drop in to the centre and access our website which has many online forms on it which can help with people’s queries and questions.

"This can help with reducing the time people may wait to see a customer services advisor and makes it easier for them to access the services that they need quickly and efficiently".

Anne-Marie Canning, Labour Candidate for Carfax, added: "Advice on issues such as housing benefit is particularly important now given that the Tory / Lib Dem coalition are making savage cuts to people’s entitlements. This new centre will be a really valuable resource for many people in Carfax and across Oxford who suffering because of government cuts".