West Sussex rolls out cloud-based digital mapping to town and parish councils
West Sussex County Council has signed a three-year deal with Getmapping providing access to the cloud-based mapping system Parish Online to every town and parish council in the county. The system includes geographic datasets such as tree ownership, gully locations and highways maintenance. It will offer town and parish clerks and councillors greater visibility of their local infrastructure enabling them to better plan, commission and carry out local improvement works, West Sussex says. Parish Online includes editing tools to help community councils develop their neighbourhood plans, plot and account for their physical assets, consult on planning applications, assess insurance risk and record surface water issues. "As our local councils gain more responsibility it's important to ensure they have the right tools for the job", said Duncan Barratt, community and economic development manager at West Sussex. "Digital mapping can assist them by providing location intelligence and a unified view from the county council across to the town and parish." Getmapping is a provider of aerial photography, digital mapping and web based services.
Pictured: Parish Online in use.
Parish Online: www.getmapping.com/gis/parish-online
South Hams and West Devon sign £1.5m shared ICT services deal with Civica
South Hams District Council and West Devon Borough Council have signed a contract with specialist systems and business process services firm Civica to share the ICT which underpins their organisations. The shared services deal, worth £1.5 million, will enable the councils to digitise and redesign public services and internal operations, the firm says. The two authorities have already worked together for eight years, merging management structures in 2007 as the South Hams and West Devon partnership (SHWD). Civica will supply the councils with electronic document management (EDM), telephony, workflow, payment, CRM and mobile working solutions. Its contact management tool will be used in conjunction with Civica EDM and workflow systems to create an online portal - whereby members of the public can create an account to interact with the authority and access services. This customer journey will be integrated into back-office processes in real-time. In a statement Darren Cole, head of ICT and customer services at SHWD, said: "We recognised that with ever-increasing financial challenges and the changing needs of our customers, a more transformational approach was needed. It became clear that technology should play a key role in this."
South Hams and West Devon partnership: http://www.swdevon.gov.uk/
Civica: www.civica.co.uk
