Bristol City Council launches new website
Bristol City Council has today launched its new website aimed at dramatically improving its service to residents.
The site, which suffered several delays in its development, aims to be much easier to use, with all content reviewed and refreshed, only taking across the most popular pages from the old site. The site has also been given a more modern look and feel.
Back in February, The Drum revealed that the site had been delayed following a decision to choose a more suitable platform, eventually settling on the Drupal open-source content management system.
The site has now gone live nine months after the initial launch date.
Council leader Barbara Janke said: “Bristol is widely recognised for its strong media, creative and digital economy. But for a city with such a strong record, the council’s website was outdated and cluttered with far too much information that had built up over time.
“The new site should be much more user-friendly, and include easier ways to pay, apply and report online, which will be developed further over the next few years.
“It will also provide a more effective and modern service to visitors and investors.
“In times of budget savings, the decision to invest in the new site was carefully considered. But large savings will be made in costs of transactions, remote and flexible staff working. A much more cost-effective and efficient service will also be available to residents.”
The cost to the council of an online transaction averages at 40p – this compares with £4.62 to handle a transaction over the phone and £7.03 for face-to-face. The aim is to increase the number of residents using self-service including online to 40% by 2012/13, up from 15% now.
The new site’s budget averages £160,000 per year over five years. This includes design, development, migration of content and ongoing support.
The site has a number of new features, including:
- An improved navigation system and better search engine - powered by Google
- Quick links to pay, apply and report online
- ‘My Neighbourhood’ facility - a new postcode driven application for local information such as maps, planning applications and local facilities
Bristol City Council’s claims that the website shows its continued commitment to using open source software.
A list of local contractors has been developed to support the site and the website team will be working with some of these local companies over the coming months on further improvements.