Kent County Council is set to cut the times its round-the-clock contact centre is available - in a move that will save the authority £434,000 a year.

The council says demand for its 24-hour telephone service is low and many callers who do use the service out of hours are in any case told to call back the following day.

KCC set up the service in 2004 to allow residents to access any council service, such as renewing library books or reporting minor road repairs.

But a report says more than half of the calls made outside the hours of 9am to 5pm are non-urgent and could hold up those who have a genuine emergency.

It also says many people who do call out of hours end up being told to ring back the next day as their query cannot be dealt with.

Outside normal hours, figures show the contact centre is barely used between midnight and early morning, with call numbers often in single figures.

The contact centre costs KCC £3.6million to run and, if agreed, the proposal to operate the service from Monday to Friday between 8am and 6pm will save £434,000 a year.

Under the shake-up, KCC says it would continue to deal with emergency calls such as social services issues out of normal hours and at weekends.

Consultation on the plans ends on September 6. For details, visit www.kent.gov.uk/contactus.