Council leaders have today named the 27 local authorities awarded with £390,000 to develop technology and put more services online.
Town halls including Blackpool, Newcastle, Reading and Essex will now receive £10,000 each to expand on digital tools and learn from successful approaches introduced elsewhere.
Groups of local authorities including Dorset County Council and all six of the region’s district and borough councils will receive £25,000 under the Local Government Association’s (LGA) Digital Experts programme.
Cllr Peter Fleming, chairman of the LGA’s Improvement and Innovation Board, said the scheme would give a ‘helping hand’ to councils looking to ‘draw on the learning of their peers and quickly implement what has worked well elsewhere’.
‘There is a lot of excellent working going on in councils to develop and implement innovative digital ways of providing services,’ he said.
‘It is great to see councils learning from each other and adopting the digital tools which have already been developed. We want to support the sector to share these assets more effectively so there will be bigger benefits for more councils.’
The successful councils are:
• Blackpool Council
• Bournemouth, Dorset and Poole LRF
• Christchurch and East Dorset Councils
• Dacorum Borough Council
• Dorset County Council and all six district/borough councils in Dorset
• Essex County Council
• Gloucestershire and Gloucester City
• Lancaster City, Preston City and Fylde Borough Council
• Luton Council
• Milton Keynes Council
• Newcastle City Council
• Newcastle Under Lyme
• North Warwickshire Borough Council and Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council
• Nottingham City Council
• Reading Borough Council
• Redcar and Cleveland
• Solihull MBC
• South Holland and Breckland District Councils
• Southampton Council
• Stafford Borough Council and Cannock Chase Council
• Staffordshire County Council
• Stockton-on-Tees
• Test Valley Borough Council
• Thurrock Council
• Westminster CC, RB of Kensington and Chelsea & LB Hammersmith and Fulham
• Wirral Council
• Wyre Council
