Website Service Standards

In March 2005 the Chester City Council website was awarded Transactional status by the Society of Information Technology Managers (SOCITM)

This is the highest ranking possible in that it is the level all local authority sites must achieve and  means we are "accessible, complete, thoughtful and coherent. Have developed more than one type of online interaction (eg payment, applications, consultation, bookings) and also offer examples of customer recognition (eg ability to check outstanding Council Tax balance). We also provide specific email contacts for different service enquiries and make widespread use of databases, downloadable forms and online form filling (eg for service requests, appointments). Routinely utilise the potential of the Internet for joined-up government (eg OFSTED reports listed alongside schools listings) and offer unique examples of the application of the medium in a local government context." 

We have highlighted a number of areas we feel will helped us to achieve this goal.

Making it easier to contact the council

Aside from the normal ways of contacting the council fax, phone and telephone we have a variety of online ways for customers to contact us:

• Published contact details for all key areas
• Easy to use contact forms

Recognising our customers

• You can now check your council tax balance online
• You can notify us of change of address details online
• You can subscribe to pages on the website, being notified by email of any changes or additions that may interest you.
• We react to suggestions and criticisms made, charting what we have done and why, as well as what we plan to do to continue to improve the site.

Content

The introduction of a new content management system means you can be confident the information we publish is uptodate and accurate:

• Staff from every service area are responsible for updating the content on the site.
• All staff using the CMS have undergone Plain English training
• There are a series of database driven pages to allow users access to regularly changing information job vacancies, press releases, minutes and agendas.

Participation and Consultation in local democracy

We believe you should be able to interact with the local democratic process online and will continue to improve your access to the council, its officers and its members

• You can easily make a comment or complaint about any council service, as well as let us know what you think about the website.
• Consultation documents and surveys are regularly added to the site.

Information on a range of services

We have created three new sections full of information not generally provided by the city council.

• We deep link to other council and central government sites including a shared search and a-z facility that links into all Cheshire local authorities
• We offer a Cheshire County wide search facility
• Our Life Episode pages help you through some of the every day problems.

Online forms

We will continue to add and develop online forms until all council forms are available in paper and electronic format.

• In 2004 and 5 the Chester City Council website was highlighted as an example of Best Practice for use of online forms by SOCITM
• Council Tax and Parking charges can be paid online
• You can now report incidents of Graffiti, Abandoned Vehicles or suspected benefit fraud online
• You can email your councillor or if you do not have email send a councillor enquiry form which will passed to them to deal with
• You can put forward a question to be raised at the next meeting of your Area Committee
• You can add an entry to the What's On Listing

Usability

Users can now find information quicker and easier than before:

• A new search engine with advanced search facilities has been introduced
• A comprehensive A-Z directory is now available to users.
• We have introduced the latest IPSV metadata standards to conform to the latest eGMS standards 
• We have made the site easy to navigate through the Apply for it, Pay it, Report it, Find it and Book it easy links on the homepage.
• Key sections of the site offer standard internet shortcuts as recommended by the LAWS Local Government Category List (e.g. www.chester.gov.uk/tourism or www.chester.gov.uk/planning
• The design of the website - using templates and CSS - aims to conform to the WAI AA standards.
• The site has been designed for use in a range of browsers including Explorer, Firefox, Netscape, (Mac) Opera and Linux
• We offer a translation service for key languages.
• We publish details of the number of monthly visitors to the site.

A commitment to standards

We are committed to maintaining the highest standards of usability and accessibility:

• The council website achieved transactional status in March 2005 and maintained in in 2006.
• We are ICRA rated, giving you confidence in the suitability of all content on this site.
• We aim to achieve WAI AA ratings for accessibility and are CSS and XHTML 1.0 transitional rated.  We run monthly checks to correct any pages that have deviated from these standards during updating.
• We employ the a service to regularly test the site for integrity, broken links and general errors.
• We employ a service to monitor our site for availaibilty to achieve our aim of 24/7 access to the council.

 

If you have any questions or suggestions about the site you can contact us by e-mailing webmaster@chester.gov.uk.