An hour-long IT blip caused a Greenwich resident to wait nearly 15 minutes on the council’s emergency phone line.

The council spends more than £400,000 a year on its out-of-hours hotline which is used by thousands of residents in urgent need of help.

The service has been quickly improving compared to previous years where figures show that thousands of calls were abandoned before an operator answered.

According to a freedom of information request, in 2014/15 there were 2,724 of 53,725 calls abandoned.

The average wait time was 23 seconds, compared to this year’s 13 seconds.

The number of calls being cut off has reduced dramatically in recent years, with fewer than 500 being abandoned last year.

However, despite the better performance, one resident had to wait 14 minutes and 23 seconds to be connected to an operator.

Cllr Christine Grice, cabinet member for finance and resources, said the improved service was due to a change in the operating model.

Cllr Grice said: “In September 2016 the operating model for the Out of Hours Contact Centre changed, with the team handling calls for a neighbouring borough.

“The economies of scale this brought, alongside a change in shift patterns to better meet demand, has delivered an improved service.

“Extended waiting times are rare, as different circumstances can affect waiting times to be answered, such as a specific incident in an area or property that causes a spike in demand from affected residents.

“The longest waiting time seen this year happened on July 7 due to an hour-long IT issue, but across that day over 200 calls were handled and the average wait was 46 seconds.

“So far this financial year 94 per cent of calls have been answered within 30 seconds.”

The average wait time so far this year has been 13 seconds, according to the council’s FOI response.