Salford's website is best in country

This is an archived news story from July 2010

Salford has picked up an award for being the best council website in the country.

Salford City Council's website (salford.gov.uk) claimed the 'Local Authority Website of the Year' title in this year's Good Communications Awards.

It is the second time Salford has come away with the accolade for its website after coming out top in 2007.

It adds to a long string of awards for Salford which has also been ranked one of the best local authority websites in the Socitm Insight Better Connected awards for the past three years.

The Good Communication Awards recognise excellence in public sector communication and Salford's website was praised by judges for its simplicity and design.

It was commended on its 'impressive accessibility' and for its use of social networking sites like Twitter, YouTube and Flickr which judges said 'keeps the council on the web radar of its residents'.

Salford's website is packed with more than 10,000 pages of information for residents and since 2009 unique visitors the site have increased by 17 per cent on the previous year.

The council was commended for using its website and Twitter to communicate with residents on school closures during the bad weather in January.

Elsewhere, Salford was highly commended in the Local Authority of the Year category and commended for the design of its council publication, Life in Salford.

Salford's Make Your Mark project to encourage people to vote in the General Elections was also commended in the Mixed Media Campaign category.

Steve McComb, Salford's webmaster said: "We've worked very hard to improve the standard of content and simplify the site for users over the past year and we're pleased with what we've achieved.

"We are now using sites like Twitter to help communicate with residents and we're sharing best practice with other councils who want to improve their own websites."

Said Councillor Bill Hinds, the council's lead member for customer and support services: "Our website is often the first contact residents have with their council so it's important that we provide a user friendly service.

"The award shows that we're performing well for residents and are leading the way nationally for other councils.

"I'd like to thank our web team for what they achieved with the website as well as everyone who contributes to it daily to make sure it's up to date and as informative as possible."

Find out more about Salford's website awards.

Notes for editors

The Good Communication Awards are organised by PSI, Public Sector Information.

Other councils in the Local Authority Website of the Year category were: