Torfaen Council to Spend £71,000 on Automation to Improve Services

It is often said that the role of those in government and councils could be done by robots, and Torfaen Council seems to be intent on testing this theory. What challenges have councils faced the past two years, what will the new system hope to provide, and what services would struggle to incorporate automation?

What challenges have councils faced?

Time and time again, whenever I see any form of government, regional or national, the first thoughts through my head are inefficient, lazy, and incompetent. For those who have ever tried to contact their local council, they will know the pain of automated phone systems, trying to find the right person to talk to, and filing plenty of red tape documents all so that one can get an extra green bin because living with a family of 6 simply cannot work with one refuse and one recycling.

However, the past two years have been exceptionally difficult for local councils due to the numerous lockdowns, COVID restrictions, and dramatic changes in the nature of working. Instead of having staff manning phones in offices, numerous government workers have been operating from home, and while this has allowed councils to function to some degree, they have been unable to work efficiently in others.

One example was the erection of a 5G mast in a residential area whose planning permission was refused. However, as council employees were scattered with poor communication (maybe some 5G towers would have helped), the mobile operators were never informed that the application had been denied. As such, the local residents were horrified when they saw a giant 60-foot pole bang in the middle of their neighbourhood. Had the council utilised proper infrastructure to aid workers from home, or better, had stayed in the office, the tower situation would have likely never occurred (if there is one thing that councils love doing, it's denying permission). 

Furthermore, the rising costs of living combined with tax cuts and reduced help from governments are putting pressure on council staff and the salary they pay. Local councils are also responsible for numerous services, including bin collection, local schools, and business support, and all of these have suffered significantly over the past two years.

Torfaen council to integrate automation

Recognising the challenges faced by the economy, infrastructure, and general ability of the government workforce, Torfaen Council has recently announced that it will invest £71,000 in robotic automation systems to try and improve user performance. The 12-month experiment will involve an IT officer costing £35,000 who will monitor and configure the system, while the remaining £36,000 will be spent on additional processes that the system may be able to tackle. 

According to the council, the project has four main objectives to achieve if it is to be considered successful. These objectives are automating rule-based manual data entry, freeing up staff time, improving the speed of automation work to 24 hours a day, and be affordable compared to other commercial solutions designed to link different systems together.

While £71,000 may sound like a lot, it is remarkably low as this is the salary of an individual plus R&D expenses. Furthermore, local councils will easily waste millions each year through inefficiencies, something which the new project aims to address. If proven successful, local governments could become more automated, with humans taking a more overview approach instead of a hands-on approach.

What services would struggle with automation?

Before we dive into the problems that an automated government would face, there is one particular point of interest that needs more attention. Torfaen Council, in their announcement, specifically stated that their automation system may provide a better cost-benefit over commercial software solutions used to bridge different software; this is something of extreme importance. 

One major problem faced in both hardware and software is the inability for two different products to communicate with each other. Whether it is an IoT standard or a hardware protocol, the lack of standardisation can introduce numerous challenges for systems engineers when trying to exchange data between two sources. In many cases, software solutions are needed to bridge this gap, and this can be costly (especially if the software serves a small clientele). As such, the use of automated systems that act like humans could provide this bridge at no cost (as humans would naturally be the bridge between two systems, taking data from one and entering it into the other). 

Now, the new automation system will likely benefit the local council with regard to data entry and speeding up the process of some specific tasks, but whether it could be used to replace other tasks is another challenge. Some tasks by local councils, such as planning, require extensive knowledge of planning laws, map reading, and listening to the public, which is something that an automated system simply cannot do yet. At the same time, accepting calls from angry residents on why their bins haven't been collected is another challenge that an automation system would be unable to deal with.

But, considering the numerous advances being made in AI and the development of natural language processing systems by Google, it is more than possible that future councils could be mostly automated. An automated local council would not only save money for the locals, but it would also improve efficiency while ensuring fair treatment across the entire area.