Blackburn with Darwen Council to launch new website next month

Director of digital and business change, Paul Fleming, told members at a policy and corporate resources overview and scrutiny committee that the website would likely go live on July 15.

Mr Fleming said the website had been developed in-house and was likely to come in at slightly under the £140,000 budget.

Bosses had considered hiring an external company to develop the site but the cost was quoted at £300,000.

Mr Fleming said the concept behind the new website was to make it more transactional and customer focused.

"This began before I started with the council," he said. "We have been working hard on it for a long time.

"The current website is seven years old and we wanted something with less news and more transactional capability so it is customer-focused.

"We want it to be quick and easy to access and provide services online.

"We also wanted to future-proof it because we don't want to spend another year building a new website next time. This will mean a much lower cost going forward."

Mr Fleming said one of the key features of the new website would be an online chat facility where the public could raise issues with customer services operators.

He said this would free up phone operators and face-to-face meetings for those who really need them.

He added: "The public does not really mind the current website but it is not easy to navigate and I'm a 43-year-old who is good with technology.

"There is a lot of evidence people give up half way through whatever they are doing and ring us instead. We know we can do much better and this new website will be much easier to use."

Chairman of the committee, Cllr Dave Harling, said: "If you compare our website to other councils', it has always been awful. This looks to be a big improvement."

Executive member for digital and customer services, Cllr Quesir Mahmood, added: "There is a real shift to move everything online and this new website will be the starting point for that."