Torquay Connections Closure

Connections in Torquay will be closed for refurbishment from 27 June - 11 August 2008.  Visit the Torquay Connections Closure page for more information.

The First Stop Shop for all Council Services

Welcome to Connections, a modern, stylish and friendly reception area available in the three towns of Torquay, Paignton and Brixham. We can answer all your questions regarding council services, from answering on the spot to making an appointment with the relevant section.

We deal with over 130,000 detailed enquiries between the three receptions per year - so you can imagine we hold a wealth of information that's easily accessed on your arrival.

Full disabled/pushchair access, private interview rooms and an appointment service, all makes us accessible to all types of customer.

On display is a wide range of up-to-date information including leaflets and publications about council and community services.

Our Service Promise and Performance Standards

Our team of friendly, polite and helpful staff can assist you with almost any type of enquiry and we are sensitive to your needs and do our best to ensure that you can make best use of our service.

• You will always be given a warm and enthusiastic welcome.
• We will always provide you with up to date information relating to your enquiry
• All matters are treated in the strictest of confidence
• Our aim is that nobody should have to wait more than five minutes before being served
• Feedback forms are available for you to tell us any comments, complaints or compliments you may have.

Diversity & Equality Statement

Torbay Council are committed to ensuring that no member of the public or employee is treated less favourably than any other on the grounds of gender, sexual orientation, race, colour, religon, ethnic origin, disability or any other condition that cannot be justified during our contact with you

Our Top Ten Enquiries

1. Council Tax
2. NNDR or Business Rates
3. Housing & Council Tax Benefit
4. Planning
5. Electoral Registration
6. Refuse Collection
7. Registration of Births, Deaths & Marriages
8. Bus Passes
9. Concessionary Deck Chair Tickets
10. Blue Parking Badges

In most cases we will be able to answer your enquiry on the spot. If the matter is more in depth, we will refer you to a specialist officer to answer you question on our free phone internal system or arrange a personal interview at your convenience.

We do get very busy and at certain times of the day, you may sometimes experience a short wait in the queue before being seen. However, this should be no longer than a couple of minutes even at our busiest times.

If you wish to discuss your enquiry more discreetly, we can offer you a private interview room away from the public counter.

To assist you we have put together some of the more simple most frequently asked questions in each of the offices.

Connections in the Community

Connections is always striving to make and maintain links within the local community by linking up with local help groups and official organisations. In recent months, we have been present at exhibitions in Torquay, Paignton and Brixham providing public awareness of our services. These proved extremely popular, and many residents were pleasantly surprised at the variety of services that we were able to offer at first hand.

The three Connections offices also play host to regular displays by various organisations for the public to come and view and ask any questions they may have. Future exhibitions are to include the employment agency, crime prevention and Community alarm systems for the elderly.

If you have something you would like to exhibit please contact us.

Torbay Council works closely with the Pension Service  we are able to offer weekly 'surgeries' in the  Connections offices held by a representative of the Pension Service.

In addition, to these surgeries we are looking at widening our role within the community to playing host to public, voluntary and private sector organisations.

The Future...

We are always looking at ways to improve our service and welcome any feedback or ideas from our customers regarding improvements, so please contact us with your ideas.