iwight.com Scores Highly in Socitm Review

The Annual Review of Local authority websites has recently been published and Isle of Wight Council's website once again scored highly.

The annual review is run by SOCITM (the Society of Information Technology Management) who work with the Government to give advice on ICT and e-government to local authorities.

A team of reviewers assess all local authority websites and compare them against a range of criteria including ease of use, how up to date the content is, how easily you can find information and which services can be accessed online.

The survey also looks at the popularity of each website whilst measuring the number of visitors and their particular user habits.

The findings were published at the end of February and we were delighted to find that iwight.com is still in the top ten websites for all unitary authorities. The site is also in the top five in the region for usage and was singled out for examples of good practice in several key areas.

As well as its excellent ratings the site was noted for its use of plain English and was classed as 'transactional' - meaning there are a wide variety of services and facilities for people to use online. There are now over 200 council services available on iwight.com with more being added all the time. Such facilities allow you to apply for a school place for your child, request a library book, pay for an excess parking charge, submit a planning application, report a highway defect and apply for a job with the council.

iwight.com was also highlighted as being one of only five local government sites to have remained in the list of top unitary authority websites at least five times throughout the past ten years.