What people say about our site
Commendations
The SOCITM (Society of
Information Technology Management) Better Connected survey is
the most respected and comprehensive survey of council
websites.
The 2009 SOCITM survey awarded the Allerdale Borough
Council website 'Excellent' status, making it one of only
eight websites in the country which were rated as
excellent. It was also rated the best district council site in
the UK.
SOCITM reviewers comments about our website for
2009
"Best website for council I have seen for ages — certainly
during this review.”
“I loved this site and still do having gone back for a
second look. It was by far the best site I reviewed this year. The
site design is easy on the eye and feels modern, functional and up
to date. It gives you confidence and trust in the organisation you
are dealing with."
"Allerdale is a small district council and can’t have a
huge budget and yet it is able to produce a ‘Wow’ site.”
Read more SOCITM 2009 review
comments.
SOCITM Better Connected survey 2008 - earned Transactional
status, meaning that a citizen, business or organisation can not
only find information on the website easily, but can also use a
full range of online forms for reporting, applications and
payments.
The content of the website was rated as excellent in the survey.
The website overall was rated the best shire district website in
the North West and was in the top 16 shire district websites in
Britain.
SOCITM reviewers comments about our website for
2008
"There is an excellent 'Find my Nearest' where I can find car
parks, libraries, sports centres etc."
"This site has some excellent touches such as good use of online
forms and a find my nearest function which is truly useful. There
is a great attention to detail and there is lots of good
content."
"It is a good site. The navigation is solid and consistent."
In the 2005 'Better Connected' survey, Allerdale was one
of only 19 councils rated as close to Transactional
status.
Better Connected SOCITM survey - earned a Content Plus rating
and cited as an example of best practice in the 2002 'Better
Connected' survey by the Society of Information Technology
Management, the professional association for ICT managers. Council
websites are graded at four levels by SOCITM; Promotional, Content,
Content Plus and Transactional - based on the level of information
and interaction provided. Allerdale's was the only Cumbrian site,
and one of only 27 shire districts, to achieve Content Plus
status.
Ordnance Survey - Quoted Allerdale website as an example of best
practice in the use of Internet Street Mapping.
Progress in Implementing e-Government Report - 23rd out of 388
local authority websites assessed (ranked 10th).
Audit Commission
The Audit Commission recently conducted an inspection on
accessibility at the council. The draft report identifies the
"Website is easy to access and navigate, it has developed, has
discussion fora and allows e-payments; service staff now have
ownership of service pages."
Sitemorse testing
We currently use the Sitemorse testing service to
ensure our website is error free, reliable, and that it conforms to
the latest government standards. Sitemorse also carries out tests
every month on all 468 councils websites in the UK. (Allerdale's
website has been ranked 15th out of 468).
Quotes about our Website
"Firstly can I congratulate the council on a fantastic website!
I have found it extremely useful, helpful and very easy to
navigate."
"Congratulations on your web-site. I am very impressed."
"Congratulations on your election coverage on the website - it
was superb! I was glued to it when I got home from Wigton until the
Keswick result went on."
As I stated this morning your website is excellent! As part of
my job I research all forms of communication used by local
authorities and therefore have checked out all Cumbria Council
websites. Without a doubt Allerdale has the best 'user friendly'
site. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand how to
access information required from all services the Council offers.
What a pleasure!"
"I found your site when looking for info about UK
counties/cities. Very nice and informative. I have added a link on
my site to it, so everybody can enjoy it."
"I found your Council web site today, which includes planning
application lists each with its own site location plan (excellent),
plus Planning Committee Agendas and Minutes. Very impressed with
amount of info and ease of use. Best of the 'Planning' web sites in
Cumbria. Please pass on this congrats to whoever created it."
"The web site is extremely well-designed and other Local
Authorities should follow your example. Well done!"
"Hi! Just had a look at your site - I like it!"
"Your website is nice."
"Very easy to find your way around, links excellent, most of
info clear."
"Nice site, well done. It's crisp, clean and efficient. Useful
content too."
"Nice to see Allerdale have joined the technological age."
"Good site, easy to get round. Of great help if, like me, you
need info, are very busy, and live hundreds of miles away."
"The site looks great."
"....most of the website is great, and loads at a sensible speed
even over our pathetic connection."
"Having just had a 'play' with the site, I'm really impressed!
Well done."
"Probably the best local authority site I have seen on the
web."
"The site looks great and very comprehensive."
"Browsed ABC website which is about the best local authority
website I have seen!"
"Had a good tour round - well done! All links are clear and
snappy - very pleased with the result."
"Excellent and long overdue. Now at least we can't say we don't
know what is going on."
"Brilliant start - good stuff!"
"Just a brief note of thanks for producing the excellent
resource in the Broughton Moor pages of your web site and for
sending the development guide."
"I would like to congratulate you on the new Allerdale website.
This has been my first visit today and I found the whole site very
easy to navigate and very well put together and displayed, which
made my visit even more enjoyable. The content in general is
excellent and the information within the site was easy to access
and understand. Congratulations again and for the first time in my
life I can now appreciate the work involved by your dedicated staff
at Allerdale Borough Council."
"I came to the website looking for planning advice, and found it
easily. The planning section is well laid out with no broken links.
well done."
Feedback about our eForms
"Excellent clarity and easily completed."
"Very easy to use, even for a relative novice - questions and
options in plain English and uncomplicated - well done."
"I struggle with reading / writing but the form I filled out was
clear and easy to read with not to much information on it. This
service was great many thanks."
"The form was easy to follow and having limited characters
focused my mind!. The ability to save the form and return to it is
excellent as is the upload facility for a job description. Very
positive experience"
"This is definitely the way forward for business
communications. It saves paper, time and postage. Using
the form was easy and it was well laid out."
About the Job Application Form:" I found
it difficult to explain how I met the criteria on the person
specification using the 2000 character limitation in the additional
information and relevant experience boxes, and this was on a person
spec with only 15 points - what about the one with 29 points that
I'm interested in applying for!!! I would suggest that increasing
this limit or ensuring person specifications are kept more succinct
would make the process less frustrating. Overall it was simple and
quick though."
To combat the users problem, we have increased the
character limitation up to 5000 for all of the text areas on the
Job Application Form and added a 'Character Count' facility to the
large text areas of all our forms.
"The form was easy to follow and very handy as the postmen are
on strike"
"The forms are well laid out and intuitive to use. This is an
excellent way of imparting information."
About the Missed Bin Form:"Our big green bin is
missing. There was no area to type a short message to
explain."
We have since added a 'Further Information' box on the
Missed Bin form to allow users to provide short explanations where
appropriate
"The form was very good, the only criticism was it was time
consuming to read the whole form to make sure that the right things
were put in the right boxes."