A move which brings to an end the option of contacting Wirral Council's Streetscene complaints service by email has been criticised as "discrimination against the elderly."

The email ban begins this weekend and is part of a streamlining operation which the authority says "aims to make it easier for our customers to do business with us via the internet."

Streetscene handles residents' complaints about a huge array of issues including fly-tipping, wheelie-bin collections, broken street lamps, flooding and litter.

Liberal Democrat councillor Pat Williams is battling to have the ban lifted.

She said: "I am totally dismayed about this decision.

"I am all for encouraging people to use the internet whenever possible and can understand the economic benefits.

"However, this should be a gradual process and one which does not discriminate against people without access.

"Most people, particularly the older generation, wish to be as independent as possible; removing the ability of those people to communicate directly by email to Streetscene is really wrong and discriminatory.

"Those housebound and disabled people are doubly prevented as not everyone is able to get to libraries for WI-FI connections."

Joe Blott, Wirral’s strategic director of transformation and resources, said: "To clarify, the Streetscene contact number is still operational.

"However, rather than encouraging people to request services or make complaints via email, we are first directing them to consider using the forms available on the council’s website which are fully transactional.

‘It is cheaper when customers use these forms to request services so, if at all possible, we would like customers to do so.

"The money we save by dealing with more transactions online, will enable us to fund the call centre, which is needed as a facility for people who don’t have access to the internet."

He continued: "At the moment two telephone advisors pick up emails and have to rekey the information into our systems.

"Our online forms do this automatically. This means that for some services - such as bin collections - the information is sent directly to our contractor which means the service can be delivered even when the council is closed.

"These changes in our customer services are not unique to Wirral.

"Councils around the country are encouraging residents to go online to access services. 49% of our online contacts are now made by mobile or tablets and when our new mobile and tablet compliant website is launched later this year, people will find it even easier to get in touch."