Star Rating for SLDC Website

9 March 2010

South Lakeland District Council’s website has recently been assessed by IT experts and been given an overall ranking of three stars out of four.  The Society of IT Managers (SOCITM) survey 433 local authority websites across the country and mark each website against the objective that it should be “useful, usable and used”. 

This year, a new ranking of one to four stars was used, with four stars indicating excellence.  SLDC achieved a three star ranking which has placed it in the top 27% of local authorities nationally.   

The council’s website was recognised to have “excellent coverage on its home page”, and that the “news items are well written and prominent”.   The reviewer was also impressed by the “find my nearest/mapping facility” and remarked on it being “a great feature” and that it “deserves to be strongly promoted across all relevant content pages.”

SLDC’s Change & Transformation Programme Manager, Kate Kelly, said, “We are in the process of redesigning the website to improve the way it looks and to provide more user friendly features.  We are happy with the results of the assessment and we will be using the comments and feedback we have received from the SOCITM survey to help us develop and progress the website further in the future.” 

Councils have to put their website up for scrutiny every year to ensure they deliver what the public needs.