Delayed Bristol City Council website due for July
Bristol City Council has announced that it expects its new website to be launched in July of this year, as well as a commercial framework for suppliers to bid on future work to the site, which is also set to be announced during the summer.
The new website originally went to tender in November 2009, with a view to launch a year later.
However, the process leading up to the project has been delayed by a number of factors, including financial constraints and a need to identify a more widely supported platform.
“We have been engaging with the digital development community and asking them to advise as to whether we are on the right track,” explained Bristol City Council website project manager, Luke Smith.
“Instead of telling the market what we want, we have been asking them what they would recommend and evaluating our existing systems, in order to move to a more widely supported platform.”
The new website will aim to offer greater flexibility by enabling the use of blogs, wikis and microsites, enabling departments within the authority to engage with local people more directly.
The Council is hoping to become more efficient by increasing its use of the web in providing services, without reducing the levels of service provided through its more traditional channels.
“Replacement of the website is a critical project for the council that supports many of our major change programmes,” explained Smith.
“In particular, it enables the reduction in the cost of our service delivery by moving to cheaper channels such as the web, delivering substantial savings.”
The Council will be kicking off the next phase by holding a meeting at the Council House on Tuesday 8th March, where it will run through its revised programme of work based on the new platform and the proposed procurement process. It is known that budgets for future work on the completed site will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
The new website was first announced in late 2009, when it was revealed that the Council intended to put a total budget of £800,000 over a five-year-period towards the website, which would cover all costs, including staffing and build. During this period the Council re-evaluated the website platform, eventually settling on Drupal.
In an effort to get the project underway, the Council has decided to assign the initial implementation work to its existing systems partner, meaning that this will no longer be available as part of the framework.