28 March (Part 1) - Bexley Council’s website. Oh dear!
Bexley Council said it would launch its new website on 1st April
but it somehow escaped a week early. It will not be an easy job to get it right and the first signs were not good.
It looks pretty enough but whether it is useful or not is a different
question to be answered only after the inevitable tweaking has taken place and
it has become more familiar to users. The first signs were not encouraging.
As is to be expected of a Council which hates scrutiny and accountability, easy
access to anything to to with democracy has been removed from the front page.
Choose D for Democracy on the alphabetical index and you will draw a blank. The
Index which used to be prominent is now tucked away at the bottom of the page.
One good thing is that you can see what the Council Tax rate is with a single
click. Over the coming days I will be checking
Council Tax rates in all 32 London boroughs. You wouldn't believe how
difficult some Councils make that operation and last year one or two were only allowing a check on a specified address.
I had to ask local estate agents what the rates were.