Fine words butter no parsnips
|
|
|
Local government web use is 'disappointing'
BLIGHTY CHARGEPAYERS are not interested in their local council's websites.
An annual review by the Society of IT Managers (Socitm) said that the numbers of people visiting local council websites barely improved during 2009.
Many sites got harder to use and visitors were less than happy with what they saw.
The numbers of council sites that were rated excellent did increase, but some sites were so bad that they spoilt it for the rest of them.
Martin Greenwood, author of the report, warned that the state of council websites was likely to get worse as budget cuts bite.
He blamed councils' top management, saying most of them don't have a clue when it comes to recognising how important a website was in reducing corporate costs through the efficient management of customer enquiries.
The importance of the least-cost web channel was likely to grow, he said, as budget cuts are made and citizens will visit websites more often for guidance and information. µ
Share this:
Share
...is absolute crap, I can never find the information I want. The neighbouring council though actually have a reasonable web site and at least you can rate the pages (not sure if they take any notice of the ratings though).
Another crap site is the Job Centre Plus web site, at least now though it works with browsers other than IE 6.
Rob
Most of the time when you contact the Council, it's about you potentially losing money (benefits, rebates, etc), anti-social behaviour or other serious things.
People want to talk to a human being about these things, not fill in a web form.
And as someone else said, what's the point of it all anyway because they still send you a paper form to fill in and sign so all you're doing is playing their red tape games and keeping a surplus of goons employed.
Never mind bashing the BBC, how much money is squandered by Councils on silly unwanted projects, massive over-staffing in all the wrong places and too much red tape?
My Council Tax is about 10 times more than my TV licence, and I know which one gives me better value for money.
In our area, the local council web site is a javascript riddled piece of marketing eye candy.
Who would want to use that?
As when you email them they always say: You have to sign this and that paper at the town-hall,
So why not go there in the first place? Saves you time and frustration and it's solved right there :-)