Cornish council to beat e-government deadline

A Cornish council has pledged to complete its e-government rollout over a year ahead of central government's 2005 deadline.

Penwith District Council said citizens will have online access to services by September 2004, 15 months ahead of the government's December 2005 target.

Work is already underway on the project with phase one - the implementation of a new IT infrastructure and staff training - due to be completed by February.

Phase two, which kick-starts in April, involves the more complex job of web-enabling local government services, although with just 60,000 people in its constituency, Penwith Council clearly has a more straightforward task ahead of it than larger districts.

Easy options such as planning information and electoral register details will be among the first web services online, but the council will prioritise the rollout of services based on consultations with residents.

Andrew Mann, head of IT with the council, said: "We're trying to cost cut services by bringing them together.

"It is no good just web-enabling council tax details, but putting different payment sections online separately. If a customer logs on they want to see everything they owe the council, be it a parking fine or an entertainment licence fee," he added.

Broadband access is expected to be available within six to nine months.

Cornwall received a broadband boost from BT last year after the telco launched a £12.5m scheme to provide DSL internet access to the region.

Penwith's e-government roll out falls under the scheme.

Mann said that at least one company, web-hosting firm Evergreen, had been enticed to the area by the promise of broadband, and the council hopes to use its wired status to attract further SME investment.

Sun Microsystems is to provide the IT infrastructure, which will operate on a thin client server. Customers will be able to access services using smart cards.