It’s official – Pendle Council’s website is one of the best in East Lancashire according to a recent survey carried out on more than 418 councils across the country.
SOCITM, the Society of IT Managers, uses a wide range of challenging questions and scenarios to test how user-friendly Council websites are from a customer’s perspective.
And Pendle Council has been awarded three out of four Better connected stars which means customers have a good experience when using its online services.
Philip Mousdale, Corporate Director, said: “We’re delighted that the improvements we’ve made to our website have been recognised.
“It now works even better on smartphones as well as tablets and computers and we’ve made even more services available online.
“There are more than 100 things you can do on our website from managing your council tax account to requesting bulky waste collections and reporting problems such as graffiti, fly-tipping and vandalism.
“You can now also find out when your bin collection day is.”
Councillor Paul White, Leader of Pendle Council, added: “This is a fantastic achievement and we’re really pleased with the result.
“It’s so important that our website is a quick, easy and convenient way of accessing our services and more and more people are choosing to do it this way.
“More than 60% of people who visit our website do it from their smartphone and are doing things like accessing their council tax account and applying for benefits, including uploading evidence.”
Comments from SOCITM describe the Council’s website as very well designed and services are well set out.
Navigating the site on a mobile was given the full four stars.
The Council’s Digital Strategy is all about making sure customers can access services at a time and place which suits them.
Councillor White added: “We’re making sure that people who don’t have access to, or can’t use a smartphone, tablet or computer can get help using Council services at their local library as well as at Number One Market Street.”
The Council is continually working to improve the website and feedback from customers is absolutely vital.
Kathryn Halton, Web Co-ordinator, said: “If you work for an organisation that helps get people online or are an individual with some spare time to test sections of our website we’d love to hear from you.”
