Local council sites criticised

A report on local council websites has concluded that many are let down by poor transactional facilities.

The report from website performance-monitoring firm Webcredible found that error handling on forms and a lack of progress indicators when residents tried to pay council tax, for example, were particular problems on many of the sites.

However, some councils were singled out for praise with South Oxfordshire, Haringey, Bristol and South Norfolk all scoring 69 per cent or higher in Webcredible's overall usability assessment.

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At the opposite end of the scale, Walsall and Salford City council's websites failed to break the 50 per cent barrier.

Ismail Ismail, director at Webcredible commented: "With so much of the UK population online, and in a time when budgets are being slashed, there's a real opportunity for local authorities to take advantage of the strong economic benefits that come from using online over more costly channels.

"While they are improving their website usability gradually, and some councils are providing a very good online service, there is still significant scope for improvement, especially when it comes to online transactions," he continued.