Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Haringey Council's Website "Better than Most"
Haringey website makes London top ten
www.haringey.gov.uk is one of the top ten council websites in London, according to an authoritative survey.
The council website makes the grade in the latest survey by the Society of Information Technology Management (SOCITM), which has been checking the performance and content of local authority websites across the country over the past decade.
The Haringey website is classified as "transactional", meaning that users can do business with the council through the site across a wide range of services, from paying council bills to applying for planning permission or reserving a library book.
The site's innovative interactive map pages which residents can use to find their nearest services were praised by the SOCITM assessors as "best practice - and extremely unusual!"
Said Cllr Lorna Reith, Haringey cabinet member for community cohesion and involvement:
"We aim to deliver excellent services in ways which suit all our customers.
"That means providing information on paper, through Haringey People which is residents' preferred source of information, through our face to face customer service centres and online.
"We have put a lot of working into getting our website right, and I'm delighted that this has been recognised."
For full information and links to online Haringey services visit www.haringey.gov.uk/do_it_online
See Wired.gov for more info. (The full report can be bought for only £395 from Soctim)
Tags for Forum Posts: haringey council website
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Liz on
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Actually the transactional element of the website is very good. I constantly use the report a problem and the complaints/WOW eforms to communicate with the council which it appears is what they were praised for. It is a lot quicker than trying to phone through, so if I want the council to do something it is in fact pretty effective.
What I find odd is the way this one aspect of the website has meant that Haringey have made it to the 'top ten council websites'. How bad must the rest be? The website is sprawling, the search facility hopeless and information is not updated anywhere near regularly or thoroughly enough. As I have highlighted elsewhere, with regard to Harringay, content i.e. what is written, is weak and sometimes downright shoddy.
The councillor refers to Haringey residents as "customers", which to me reads 'come in, get what you want and (by the sounds of it, hopefully) go away again.' which is not my defintion of community involvement and cohesion. Furthermore, how come a press release about one aspect of the website becomes a general all round self congratulatory message about how well they communicate in a number of ways? 'Haringey People' is hardly a mine of information unless you have an overriding interest in the lives of our good councillors and a fondness for their photos and the customer service centre do their best but often they don't have a clue how to access the information you want (that's if they pick up the phone before you lose interest ).
This practice of using any little piece of good news as an excuse to blow fanfares for the whole council is why people are starting to feel they can believe or care about anything the council do.
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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It's a top 10 in London Website (out of 32 boroughs) - less impressive, but - more impressive - the wired article linked to above, seems to say that they're top 20 overall.
It's not a bad site. It's just not soemthing I'd ever have thought of as being top sliceable. It's got lots on, but finding stuff is not easy and the search function leaves a lot to be desired.
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Exactly, I use it a lot for transactional stuff but like you say actually finding information on it can be very time consuming.
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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Have you tried using google to search on their website?
Just type in
what you want to search for site:haringey.gov.uk
Even the search function on our intranet here at work is rubbish. One place I worked at were good friends with Google and they had a google search on their intranet, it was VERY good.
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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Some "Issues" of the local council website seem to be shared with other municipal sites:
Brits trapped in confusing council website labyrinths - survey
(links to the Register)
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Permalink Reply by Neville Collins on
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Why is so much rubbish talked about an inaccessible website when the council cannot even clean the streets?
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Permalink Reply by Seema Chandwani on
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"Said Cllr Lorna Reith, Haringey cabinet member for community cohesion and involvement" < eh? Her job changed?
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LMFAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Oh yeaaaaa!!!
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I think one of the features of local councils is the rinsing of meaning from job titles. They've become ever more immodest.
Whereas once we had a Town Clerk, now we have a CEO (Chief Executive Officer, not Civil Enforcement Officer). Whereas once we had a council officer with responsibility for the environment, and more recently, Director of the Urban Environment (as opposed to what?) now its Director of "Place and Sustainability" (no joke).
There are more examples of self-reverential titles. I see this as a symptom of the wider empire-build.
The job-title-creep towards more pomposity doesn't lend confidence to the public, where the impression is left that these characters care as much about their PR image as doing the job.
[BTW Seema I hope you're aware you've got a sticking key (above) on your new keyboard?]
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I'm not sure why discussion restarted on this tread yesterday, just after I posted a new story in a similar vein. May I suggest that discussion continues there?
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