Cllr Heather Kidd, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for Ludlow, has called on the authorities to make greater efforts to end nuisance telephone calls, especially to the elderly.
Speaking to a pensioners group in Ludlow Heather said “The sheer volume of unsolicited calls you receive in one day now can be quite staggering. To most people they are just irritating but to elderly people then can be very distressing.”
“Some years ago the Government introduced the Telephone Preference Service which allowed residents to opt out of receiving unsolicited sales calls. Firms breaking this opt-out were severely fined. However what has happened now is that the worst offenders have moved abroad and all regulation has been thrown to the wind.”
“During one day at home I received 9 calls and a colleague of mine holds the record at 23. They range from phones, through timeshare to gadgetry. They even try to take advantage of the governments home insulation scheme. I have spoken to a senior engineer at BT and the ability to track and block large volume calls (Many if not most are automated) does exist but the will to act on this is not there at present.”
“I’ve written to OFFCOM and to Pat McFadden, Minister for Business on this issue and would urge anyone concerned with this issue, especially groups concerned with the elderly, to do the same.”