Council website praised

Rochdale Council Website

Rochdale Council’s website has been praised in a UK-wide review of local authority and public sector websites.

The website was named as one of the eight reviewers’ favourites from a total of 474 sites in the Socitm ‘Better Connected’ 2013 report.

The council says the endorsement is the result of a concerted drive to improve the council website over recent months to make it easier for residents to find what they are looking for.

The council’s web team and contact centre worked together to review a range of evidence to identify the top tasks residents wanted to do most often online.

They then made these tasks - including finding out when bins are collected, claiming benefits, finding a school and renewing library books – easy to find on the home page of the website.

Councillor Richard Farnell, Cabinet Member for Corporate Services at Rochdale Borough Council, said: “We want to make it as simple as possible for our residents to access services online because it makes their lives easier. Accessing services online also saves the council money which is good for everyone in the borough.

“We still aim to do much more with our website and hope to make some exciting changes in the coming months, so there’s no better time to get online and give it a go.”