Topic: Westbury Town Council Web Site. A Shambles.

[wanderlust]

This is really a question for Baldy and/or Mike.

Who is responsible for the maintenance  & updating of the web site, & why are they not doing their job?

If I want to know what's happening in a town, my first port of call would be the council web site.

According to Westbury Town Council web site, the next exciting events are a French market on SATURDAY 1st MAY & Christmas 2010.

What does this say about our town?  Living in the past?

Does Westbury have a football club? Not according to the town council.

Ooops, left out the forthcoming street fair.  When?  That's right 17th July 2010.

[baldy]

The town council formed a working group to deal with the website a few months ago.
 
I'm not on the working group, but it's clear that those on it have not done anything of any use yet.
 
The town clerk is aware of the comments made here and knows that the website needs reviewing and updating.
 
I suspect that what will now happen is that after the Annual Town Council meeting tomorrow, when seats on committees and working groups are confirmed for each councillor, the clerk will make sure the web site working group is called to a meeting and gets on and does some work ....

[wanderlust]

Thanks for the prompt reply Russell.

Next question. Does it really need a working group?  There must surely be someone in Westbury with sufficient skills to radically redesign the web site, so that it is easy to navigate & access the required information whilst shouting "Hey this is Westbury, come & take a look".  After that all it should need is someone with minimal IT skills to spend maybe an hour a week updating it.

If it's left up to a working group or committee, we'll just end up with an even bigger dog's breakfast.

[baldy]

Thanks for the prompt reply Russell.

Next question. Does it really need a working group?  There must surely be someone in Westbury with sufficient skills to radically redesign the web site, so that it is easy to navigate & access the required information whilst shouting "Hey this is Westbury, come & take a look".  After that all it should need is someone with minimal IT skills to spend maybe an hour a week updating it.

If it's left up to a working group or committee, we'll just end up with an even bigger dog's breakfast.

I've forgotten who it is, but the website is handled and updated by a specialist professional firm based in Westbury.
 
This firm simply needs the information passed to it about what the website should say and in what format.
 
A working group is needed to ensure that the right policies are developed for use of the website and to approve of any content for the website. It's up to the clerk to ensure that everything is politically neutral.
 
The failure here is simply that the working group has failed to meet and get on top of the updates needed.

[wanderlust]

Nice edit 

[Derek Forbes]

lol what a shambles thats sounds just like a tory ran council no one knows anything lol.

[baldy]

lol what a shambles thats sounds just like a tory ran council no one knows anything lol.

The town council is not "Tory run".
 
Although I am not a member of the Conservative Party, I recognise that many councils that are "Tory run" are very effective and efficient. Warminster Town Council is a the best local example of a well run Conservative town council.
 
I now understand that the problem that has occurred with the small web site working group is that one member has been ill quite often lately meaning that the group cannot meet and get any business done due to not having the required 3 members to be a quorum (3).
 
I do think this will be solved at tonight's annual town council meeting by putting more members on the working group.

[wanderlust]

I'm afraid I have another question.

Does the local company running the web site really need someone from the Council to tell them that Christmas 2007 might not belong on the "Latest news" page?

[Al]

Do we really need a "specialist professional firm", for what should just be a simple WordPress job that the town clerk or someone could update themselves?

[wanderlust]

Thanks AL, that was one of the things I was trying to get at.  Once you've got a decent web site up & running, (which IMHO the current one is not) all it needs is someone with minimal knowledge plus all relevant information & a little common sense to spend not very much time updating.

I suppose the thinking is that if they've got a specialist professional firm doing it, they at least have someone else to blame. Whereas if did it all in house .....................................

[baldy]

These are all questions that the working group is intended to look at and deal with.
 
In the meantime, the council does not have staff with the time or training to handle significant web site changes, though some simple updates are usually handled by the council's staff - eg. Dates of meetings and Agendas / Minutes of meetings.
 
You need to remember that the council works with a skeleton crew of staff who are fully stretched at all times, so they will always be prioritising their time on the most important issues. This means that minor matters like website updates will often stay at the bottom of the list of things to do.
 
This is a fact of life in small councils where the public want more and more done with less and less money available per head of population.  The town council has had a nil increase in its council tax precept for 2 years running, yet the council has had to take on more staff to handle the ever increasing number of projects and issues that need to be progressed.

[Al]

You need to remember that the council works with a skeleton crew of staff who are fully stretched at all times, so they will always be prioritising their time on the most important issues. This means that minor matters like website updates will often stay at the bottom of the list of things to do.

OK, so I am biased, but surely a little work to get the info out to people via the now vastly common and poplar medium of the internet would help the council. It would stop people asking whats happening, it would get more people involved and ultimately isn't that what the council is all about? Seriously, an hour a week on updates at the very most is all it would take - most updates would take but a minute. But no time to update the people hey, the people that pay for the boomin' council in the first place! *mutters* Silly.

[baldy]

You need to remember that the council works with a skeleton crew of staff who are fully stretched at all times, so they will always be prioritising their time on the most important issues. This means that minor matters like website updates will often stay at the bottom of the list of things to do.

OK, so I am biased, but surely a little work to get the info out to people via the now vastly common and poplar medium of the internet would help the council. It would stop people asking whats happening, it would get more people involved and ultimately isn't that what the council is all about? Seriously, an hour a week on updates at the very most is all it would take - most updates would take but a minute. But no time to update the people hey, the people that pay for the boomin' council in the first place! *mutters* Silly.

You miss the obvious point that the council has a website in existence in the first place to help update people on what is happening.
 
The fact that the council has not managed to keep the site well updated is a common problem for many small councils running with over-stretched staff.
 
If I had to blame one set of people in particular for this particular slip-up (ie. few real updates over the last year), I would point at the current mayor and deputy mayor, who through no fault of their own, simply were put in their positions despite the fact that they have a very obvious low level of general management / organisational ability (in comparison with people who do have clear management and other relevant professional level skills).
 
It is the job of the mayor and deputy mayor to monitor the running of the office systems and to make sure things are kept up to date.
 
Frankly, I knew when our current mayor was appointed that she would be unable to handle many issues very well and would rely on others to help things along properly. However, she was the only person nominated for the position last year ....... which means she was the best person available in the sense that no-one else was available and willing to do the job.

[Derek Forbes]

SHAMBLES  thats all i can say 

[charlie finbow]

The local company who were employed to run the Web Site was Dentons.   As Russell quite rightly says they rely on a constant flow of current and accurate information to update the Site.  I was under the impression that the then Project Manager was charged with this task.   Its not too difficult to email Dentons with current info especially as minutes of committees and relevent info are passed betwen councillors regularly.  Guess what copy Dentons into the info which can be made public.   Also I hear certain people are shouting for a Vision for Westbury.  Do your homework, Russell was instrumental along with Anna Crosbie in producing a good Vision for Westbury which I believe is still valuable and current, perhaps Russell you can enlighten us on this.