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Tune In To Rotherham Online Services |
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Local News
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Monday, 08 February 2010 16:43 |
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If you’re looking for information on council services or want to pay a bill online, you’ll find the whole process much easier thanks to Rotherham Borough Council’s new website.
The site at www.rotherham.gov.uk has been completely redesigned and now features Google search engine technology to make finding information online easier than ever before.
The new website went live at the beginning of January and already the feedback from residents has been overwhelmingly positive.
“The aim of the new improved website is to encourage people to do business with the council online, as well as using the website as an important source of information,” said Jon Ashton, Online Services Manager at Rotherham Borough Council.
“It’s much simpler than the old site and the search engine is the primary way for people to find information – the basic premise is that if you search for something you should be able to find it easily.”
The council has installed a physical Google search engine on its web server which is a powerful tool for helping users to find what they need quickly and easily. More than 104,000 people visited the site in the first three weeks.
Already the number of payments made online has gone up and the number of forms downloaded and submitted has also risen.
“All these things suggest that people are finding what they want online, which is great news,” said Jon, who added that the wintry weather at the beginning of the year boosted the number of people using the site.
“The bad weather may have prevented some people from getting to us so they may have paid their bills online,” he explained.
“Many people also visited the site to find out about school closures, gritting schedules and bin collections.”
Rotherham Borough Council is also embracing new social media tools to engage with residents: both the culture and leisure department and the press office have a Twitter profile, the library is communicating via Facebook and the new website uses YouTube and Flickr to host videos and photos.
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