Text BOXGONE to get a new recycling box. Text LOUDRAVE to complain about noisy neighbours. Text FLYTIP to report a dumped mattress in your street.

Press one to listen to a recorded voice giving a set of options. Press two to be kept holding while listening to elevator music. Press three to be suddenly cut off.

Could this be the future of council customer service in Bristol?

Walking through a door and speaking to another human being at a Customer Service Point (CSP) may no longer be the simple option it is at present if the council has its way.

A consultation is under way into a plan that could result in the present seven CSP offices in Bristol ultimately being reduced to three, with customers being encouraged to make contact by telephone, text or computer.

The council's bean counters appear to have the optimistic view that everyone owns a computer, and that therefore money can be saved by following supermarkets and airlines in expanding self-service.

But sweeping a barcode on a loaf of bread through a supermarket self-service scanner is one thing. Trying to resolve a complicated housing or council tax issue by pressing numbers on a telephone, texting from a mobile, or clicking a computer mouse is quite another.

Many people don't have access to a phone or a computer, and by encouraging self-service to the detriment of customer service, the council risks a two-tier society of computer haves and have-nots in Bristol.

How glad I am that my mother and stepfather don't live here. Like many pensioners, they don't have a computer, and this overshadowed a recent trip to Ireland for a family gathering. They discovered they were supposed to check in online for their Ryanair flight. But they couldn't because they don't have a computer. After days of trying to speak to someone by telephone they finally checked in with the help of a neighbour who printed out their boarding passes from his computer.

They found being unable to discuss their situation with anyone so stressful they have vowed never to fly with Ryanair again.

At least they have that choice. Anyone in Bristol who doesn't have a computer, or who has a complicated query they would rather have dealt with in person, will have to go to a CSP in the city centre, or at Southmead Hospital or the Hengrove Health Campus if the council's plan is fully realised.

It will be very different to the way most CSPs are presently set up in communities in which the locals know the customer service staff, and they know them.

The council's "vision" is to close offices in Redcliff Hill, Fishponds, Hartcliffe, Knowle, Lawrence Weston, and Southmead.

But that "vision" could prove short-sighted, if matters which could have been resolved at a local CSP turn into complex problems because customers were unable to discuss them with someone face to face.