UK council websites often lack key information on local democracy, according to this year’s ‘Better Connected’ snapshot survey of websites from public sector ICT professionals’ body Socitm ( http://bit.ly/dltkU5 ).
Almost two-thirds of websites (65%) fail to present details of when and where local councillor surgeries are to be held. More than half the sites (57%) fail to clarify which party is in political control, and almost a quarter (23%) do not state the name of the council leader.
In a further finding given added resonance by the recent furore surrounding the system of expenses claimed by national politicians, the survey found that two-fifths of council websites (40%) do not present any information about the expenses claimed by councillors in 2008-09.
Councils’ responses to email continue to worsen. This year, emails were sent anonymously to all UK councils asking what practical steps the council is taking to reduce its carbon footprint. In total, 35% of councils replied in two working days, compared with 42% in 2009 and 56% in 2008.
The number of non-replies has increased from 93 last year (20%) to 133 (31%), and just 234 (54%) councils answered the question either satisfactorily (196) or very well (38), though this is a slight improvement on 2009 (53%) and 2008 (52%).
This year the survey used a new ranking system for websites, awarding them up to four stars depending on various criteria designed to be as objective as possible, such as currency of information and quality of search engine.
Eleven councils (3% of the total 433) achieved a four-star ranking: Allerdale, Brent, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, East Sussex, Exeter, Newcastle upon Tyne, Oxfordshire, Salford, South Tyneside and Worthing. There were 106 three star sites (24%); 200 two star sites (46%) and 116 one star sites (27%).
Overall, however, the survey found that the majority of council websites are not yet good enough to support the major shift to self-service required to mitigate the impact of coming budget cuts on service levels and satisfaction.
NOTE: E-Government Bulletin editor Dan Jellinek is a member of the Better Connected website review team.
NOTE: Article originally published in E-Government Bulletin issue 307.
Click here to visit/return to issue 307 index
