Tens of 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.
Thanks to the publishing power of Jadu's Web Content Management System for Government, Manchester City Council has been able 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.
In the local government category, Manchester comes ahead of the other favourites Camden, Glasgow, Hounslow and Blackburn. Winners in other categories include the BBC, Amazon, Google and Tesco.
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."
manchester.gov.uk is a milestone in Local Government websites. The website provides a great service to the people of Manchester - and to be recognised alongside Google, Amazon and the BBC for excellence is one of the highest accolades for Manchester and Jadu.
Suraj Kika - CEO - Jadu
Lancashire County Council's Children's Services website - whatnow.co.uk also received fourth place in the 'Best Kids Website' category, just behind other winners including the BBC and Disney.
For more details about the BT Online Excellence Awards and the results, go to www.bt.com/onlineexcellence.
