Manchester's new website wins top accolade

Thousands of surfers have voted www.manchester.gov.uk the best local government website in the country.

The praise comes in a poll run by BT Total Broadband which offered readers the chance to vote in 17 categories over the last three months.

In the local government category, Manchester comes ahead of the other favourites Camden, Glasgow, Hounslow and Blackburn.

Matt Walton, head of online channel development at BT, said: "With the BT Online Excellence Awards, we've given consumers the opportunity to recognise the websites they regularly use - whether that's for shopping, entertaining the kids or getting information from their local authority.

"That's where they're different: we weren't interested in the technical aspects of the sites - just why users like them. As we suspected, the range of products or information available was the most important factor, followed by how easy it was to use."

Leader of Manchester City Council Councillor Richard Leese said:"Our website combines a good mix of news and information with a range of services that people can access and order online. We use our website as one of the vital channels to make contact with and to hear from our communities, so we are delighted to receive this award.

"However we don't want to stand still; we want to carry on improving so please do log on to let us know your views."

The Council worked with Jadu's Web Content Management System to provide advanced Web 2.0 features and enhanced public services to the community, such as advanced Google Maps, social book-marking of content and dynamic A-Z services.

Suraj Kika, CEO, Jadu, comments, "manchester.gov.uk is a milestone in Local Government websites. Along with the additional new Web 2.0 features, it is very user friendly and enables the Council to provide a great service to the people of Manchester."

For more details about the BT Online Excellence Awards and the results, go to www.bt.com/onlineexcellence.

Media contact:

Janine Watson, tel: 0161 234 3337