October 31, 2008 -- The UK’s South Tyneside Council has received a prestigious national award for improved service delivery and internal business process transformation. The 2008 Exemplar Award for the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG) ‘Best Business Transformation’, recognises the steps the Council has taken to improve its frontline service provision which have been facilitated largely by the continual evolution of its public facing website. The annual Exemplar Awards for Local Government are presented by the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) and Intelligent Addressing.

Making the most of Council held information to transform service delivery has been central to South Tyneside Council since 2004 and this is demonstrated particularly well through the continued evolution of its website. At South Tyneside the focus has been to improve frontline services both through the service centre but also through the website, the lowest cost route. The website is a good example of data sharing with information pulled from all the council’s major systems linked by the property database (NLPG) to provide citizen focussed results. Personalising the data facilitates and encourages online transactional activity, such as reporting a broken streetlight or an abandoned car.

Website maps, implemented in 2004 are very helpful in locating everything from a Doctor’s surgery to a Recycling point. In 2005 planning information was added and it’s now a simple process to find out the status of a planning application in the vicinity of one’s home. In 2006 personalisation was enhanced with the introduction of ‘My South Tyneside’ and in 2007/8 the Council added ‘My Nearest’ and ‘My Alerts’. Now typing in any part of an address takes the visitor to a new screen with details of their property then makes it really easy to find the information a citizen might be looking for. The ‘My Alerts’ service now makes it even easier for citizens to get information from the Council. By signing up for the ‘My Alerts’ service a citizen will receive automatic email alerts whenever there is something happening close to where they live such as road works, a change of refuse collection day or a new planning application.

John Hayes, Director at the Improvement and Development Agency, said as he presented the award “It is clear that South Tyneside Council has really embraced the eGovernment agenda by taking an evolutionary approach, transforming its own internal business processes to deliver substantial savings and efficiencies while improving its frontline service provision. The use of the NLPG to facilitate truly personalised service provision via its website is a triumph of simplicity with some unique features.”

Contact: Gayle Gander, Head of Marketing, T:+44 (0)207 747 3500, E-mail: Email Contact
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