District e-Gov Project Judged One of the Country's Best

Copyright NNDC

North Norfolk's new community web service has been named one of the top district council e-Government projects in the country.

North Norfolk District Council's pilot e-Government project, called Reach Out, which incorporates the new district website, northnorfolk.org, was named runner-up in the inaugural District Council e-Government Innovation Awards run by Belfast-based technology company Consilium.

The award scheme recognises innovation among district councils in using technology for the benefit of citizens and communities. It is supported by UK governmental organisations and associations like the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives (SOLACE), the Society of Information Technology Management (SOCITM), the Institute of Public Finance (IPF) and the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA), along with Intellect, the association of private sector technology companies.

The Reach Out project was devised to improve access to local services (whether they are provided by NNDC or by other local agencies, authorities, community groups or voluntary organisations) and to set NNDC on the road to meeting national e-Government targets by 2005 (by which time all local authorities must make all their services available electronically, if it is possible to do so). The project was made possible by around £400,000 from the Government's Invest to Save budget and the East of England Development Agency (EEDA), and was undertaken with the full involvement of representatives of partner organisations.

Under the umbrella of Reach Out, NNDC has developed a new district website, northnorfolk.org, which offers 'interaction' with the Council in a number of ways, like keeping track of your council tax account, requesting repairs to your council house, seeing the detailed files of all planning applications going back to 1974, and ordering and paying for car parking season tickets. The website also makes it easier to contact the Council online (and allows you to see how your inquiries are progressing).

In addition, northnorfolk.org has been set up to allow local town and parish councils, and community and voluntary organisations, to have their own websites (and be able to edit those sites themselves) and improve their ability to communicate with the public.

Furthermore, public access points are being set up in half a dozen of North Norfolk's more remote locations (including a pub, a Citizens Advice Bureau, and a doctor's surgery, so people can benefit even if they do not have internet access at home, and live some distance from other public access points (like libraries, where free internet access is available). Informal training and guidance has also been given to members of the public across the District, to help people use the web to access local services.

Christine Westlake, Head of Information and Communication Technology at NNDC, said: "It's a great honour to have our efforts recognised in this way. We are very proud of the Reach Out project, not least because it has involved a lot of hard work by many Council officers and representatives of community and voluntary organisations, but mainly because it can have real benefits for our community.

"Many North Norfolk people suffer a lack of access to vital local services, and Reach Out is one of the ways in which we are trying to overcome that problem. The Council's £2500 runner-up prize will help even further, because it is likely to be spent on equipment for officers to use in providing services to customers outside the Council's offices, improving their own access to information and helping to resolve problems and answer questions speedily.

"There is much yet to be done to meet the challenge of the 2005 e-Government target, but the success of the Reach Out project means we have a very good platform to build upon."

ENDS

NOTES FOR EDITOR

• The overall winner of the Consilium e-Government Innovation Award was Swale Borough Council, whose project was also funded by the Invest to Save programme and which also aims to improve access to services.
• For information about Consilium and its award scheme, see www.consiliumtechnologies.com or contact Katherine McKenna on 0289 448 0000 or by email at katherine.mckenna@ctechs.co.uk
• northnorfolk.org was held up as an example of good website content in SOCITM's 2003 Better Connected nationwide survey of local authority websites, published last month (February). The survey posed a number of questions about information and facilities available online, and northnofolk.org scored the highest of all Norfolk's local authority websites in this exercise. For more information see www.socitm.gov.uk