Major Online Accolade Welcomed For Council's Website

A major on-line accolade is being celebrated by Dover District Council as its website is named as a top ten success for best practice and given special status for its 'compelling user experience' in a report that sets the gold standard for IT in Local Government.

DDC's website has been identified as an example of best practice for links elsewhere, where the site is in the top ten nationally, and of best practice for 'resilience' (how well it performs technically). The site is also one of only 165 nationwide to be given the important 'Transactional' status. This is according to the latest report from the National Society of Information Technology Management (SOCITM).

Transactional status means that customers can access a wide range of services online, access a variety of information, easily contact the Council to initiate some services, as well as make use of effective links to other community sites, make payments, and be sure of good safety and security procedures.

Dover District Council continues to work to provide effective and up-to-date customer services and to develop on-line services for the future. In March, the Council website had more than 1.1 million pages viewed by more than 50,000 online visitors.

Cllr Stephen Manion, DDC Cabinet Member for Corporate Resources and ICT said: "This is great news and is an important recognition of a lot of hard work, as part of our ongoing commitment to put accessing services at the heart of developing customer services for the future. We continue to work to develop e-access, and we are working with other public bodies on the issue of broadband access across the district, and we are looking at making a version of the website available on mobile phones."