It is now possible to access services and information about the Council 24 hours a day, 365 days a year through its Website, which contains more than 14,000 pages of information. The County Council is also developing its Customer Information Centre at Scorrier to provide a single point of contact for queries about services provided by Highways, Street Lights, Education, Social Services and Libraries.
“More and more people are accessing our Website every day and we are confident that this facility, coupled with our extended Customer Information Centre, means that people can now access the information they need about the County Council at any hour of the day or night”.
The Website, which is being constantly improved, provides easy access to a wide range of information and services.
These include:
- A search facility to enable people to quickly find the information they are looking for.
- A to Z index covering all County Council services which also has automatic links to District Council websites.
- A comprehensive “Frequently Asked Questions” facility. Entitled “Right Now”, the continually expanding database currently contains information on more than 800 frequently asked questions and answers relating to County Council services, ranging from how to report a faulty street light to how to apply for a grant for school clothing. There is also a facility to ask questions, and these, and the answers, are then added to the database.
- Consultation . The County Council is increasingly using public consultation to challenge and compare the way it delivers services. The Website offers members of the public to opportunity to have their say on a wide range of subject areas covering all its services. Current consultations include traffic schemes, the Structure Plan, Cornwall Local Access Forum and proposals for long term care. Members of the public can also use the Website to register an interest in future consultations, so they can be notified when a particular subject is being considered.
- Up to date information on all roadworks being carried out throughout the county. This covers A, B, C and unclassified roads and footpaths.
- Admissions portal to help parents in the choice of schools for their children.
- Timetables and information on bus and train services.
- Information on how to access local Care Services.
- Interactive mapping system which covers “Community, the Environment, Leisure and Transportation” information.
- Facility to order and pay for a variety of County Council publications, including brochures and leaflets.
- Links to the Cornwall Centre’s research facilities. Equipment, such as microfiches, can be pre-booked on line.
- Details of all County Council’s job vacancies. The site also allows applications for specific jobs to be made on line.
The expansion of the use of new technologies is part of the local e-government programme – a partnership between councils and the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister to help local government achieve 100% capability in electronic delivery of priority services in ways that customers will use. All councils were set a series of e-government priority outcomes which must be in place by the end of 2005.
The Minister for local e-government Jim Fitzpatrick has praised the efforts of local authorities to meet the challenging targets, reporting that their success has transformed the provision of local services. In a recent survey comparing the websites of major companies with those of local authorities, local authorities came out top in terms of speed of their websites, and achieved over 99% availability figures.
Quelle: eGov monitor, 09.01.2006
