Surrey Heath’s website incorporating advanced mapping functionality has been hailed as one of the top local council websites in the UK.

Socitm, the association for public sector ICT management, this week released its Better Connected 2011 report which awarded www.surreyheath.gov.uk the maximum score of 4 stars, making it one of only 9 out of the 433 local authority websites to achieve this level and gaining better results than some much larger unitary, metropolitan and county council websites.

A team of Socitm reviewers assessed local authority websites based on usability, content and visitor usage. According to Socitm, the council has “an attractive site” which is “clear and well organised” and “promotes news, tasks and opportunities to get involved”.

Also praised was the site’s My Surrey Heath mapping service for being easy to use to find nearest recycling centres, play areas, bus stops, planning applications and listed buildings. Although this is Surrey Heath’s best result so far, it has been ranked in the Socitm top 20 for five of the past seven years.

The council's corporate portfolio holder Cllr Colin Dougan said: “To be flagged as having one of the best council websites once again is fantastic news and a superb recognition for the council officers and supporting staff involved. Exceptional efforts are made to ensure the site is a useful and convenient way for residents to find information and access services at a time that suits them. We will continue looking at ways to develop the site further to ensure we provide the best possible service to the public.”

www.surreyheath.gov.uk enables users to personalise their homepage to suit their individual needs, as well as pay bills, submit forms, report a number of different issues and much more online.

CONTACTS:
Ian Macey,
Press and Publicity Officer,
Surrey Heath Borough Council,
+44(0)1276 707137,
www.surreyheath.gov.uk,
http://twitter.com/Surreyheath