Highland Council launches mobile friendly website.

The Highland Council’s new website was officially launched this week by Councillor Maxine Smith, Chair of Resources Committee as she demonstrated one of the new benefits of the site on her smartphone.

The new site http://www.highland.gov.uk/ which was first introduced on 29 May 2014 allows users a clutter-free, fresh new look with greatly improved on-line services and is especially designed to be more accessible on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.

Councillor Smith said: “The content of the website is customer focussed and customer driven, to provide the most-used pages and information up front for people to find.

“Over the coming months, the Council will also be looking at providing new facilities within the website that will allow customers to have their own accounts, where the website will remember your interests and provide your pre-completed details in forms to avoid having to enter information twice.”

The council has designed the website to industry best practice standards with their supplier Jadu, to make business with the Council easier for customers to find information and book or pay for services.

Excluding Council users - around 7,000 visits are made to the Council’s website daily on weekdays with over 2 million visits each year.

The Council’s Web Project Team has worked closely with Services to create content that allows customers to find information and access online services more easily. There are currently 28 services that can be accessed via online forms and there is a programme of work in place to continue to bring more services online.

The introduction of the new website meets The Highland Council’s commitments in its 2012 - 2017 Programme to work together to empower communities to:

• increase the number of issues resolved at first contact; and
• develop further options for members, customers and employees to conduct Council business online.

Councillor Smith added: “The launch of the new website is not the end of a project – it is an ongoing process to improve the Council’s online services and businesses to customers. The Council welcomes comments on the new website via the feedback form on the website at: www.highland.gov.uk/feedback.”

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