Council website makes Christmas number one

When it comes to finding out information about your local council on the Internet, Herefordshire’s residents have the very best source to go to in the UK – and it’s official.

This website – http://www.herefordshire.gov.uk/ - has been named as the top Council website in the country  - it’s been given the number one slot out of all 461 UK council websites which exist.

The accolade has come from SiteMorse, a website testing and monitoring company which analyses all Council website on a monthly basis and produces a report.

Herefordshire’s number one rating for November is the result of a steady month on month improvement since the site’s launch in January 2005.

SiteMorse analyses each website under a number of categories and gives them a rating with a top value of ten (Herefordshire Council’s scores are indicated):

• Accessibility  (9)
• Performance  (10)
• Quality of coding (10)
• Functionality  (10)

“We’re absolutely delighted with this verdict, particularly as it’s come from an independent company whose business is solely evaluating and monitoring websites,” said Cllr June French, Cabinet Member (Corporate and Customer Services and Human Resources).

“This is particularly good news for Herefordshire - being one of the most rural counties in the UK means that for many residents the easiest way they can access information about Herefordshire Council and its partners is via the Internet.

“In the past year we’ve devoted a great deal of time and resources into making it as easy as possible to find the information people want from our website,” added Cllr French.

“We’ve also been working with our partners, The Herefordshire Partnership, Advantage West Midlands and Government Office West Midlands, to deliver the e-gateway, our community Internet platform and to bring Broadband to all corners of the county through the Herefordshire in Touch programme.

“Of course, it’s pointless giving people Broadband access but not having a suitable site for them to look at, so we’re over the moon that we’ve made it to the top of the list of council websites.

“According the rankings, our website is also better than the many Government websites which exist.”