BRENT Council will take a bold leap into the realm of science fiction as a virtual employee will start work next week.

The assistant, nicknamed Shanice after the actress who performs the role, is a life-like moving hologram projected on to a transparent screen who greets people calling at the registration and nationality services department at Brent Civic Centre in Engineers Way.

Triggered by approaching visitors, she will provide from Wednesday onwards pre-set, pre-recorded information in English only as an alternative to having a human employee sat at a desk all day answering queries but the project has been branded a “gimmick” by one critic.

Harbi Farah, of the Help Somali Foundation, questioned whether one language would provide for everyone.

He said: “Brent Civic Centre is difficult to find your way around and it is confusing for people who don’t go there very often.

“With regard to Somalis they are not well represented in terms of council staff, so it is not as though they can easily ask someone who speaks their language.”

Shanice is not interactive but this could be introduced in the future and the script will be changed depending on what is happening at Brent Civic Centre on a given day.

Mark Rimmer, head of registration and nationality services at Brent Council, said: “People were coming in to the ground floor and not knowing where to go. I am pretty confident it is going to work well.

“You can’t talk to her unfortunately, once she has been installed, we will see how it works and whether we will need to increase the number of scripts.

“At the moment she is in English and we do have the ability to record new scripts so we will do that if customers need it.

“I think people still like that human interaction and it will be a long time off until she replaces my staff.”

In total the hologram kiosk has cost about £13,000 and Mr Rimmer said it is more cost effective than employing a full-time staff member.

A spokeswoman for Tensator, which makes the assistants, confirmed Shanice was the first to be used in local government, being already installed at Luton Airport and in the health sector.

Robert Oxley, campaign director of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Councils need to focus on delivering the fundamental services residents pay so much for, not virtual gimmicks.

“Making it easier for taxpayers to use council services is one thing, but digital projects like this have a track record of costing too much and delivering too little.”