Hi-tech Basildon Council will have such advanced technology over the next year that few people will need to go into its headquarters.

Now residents can use the Basildon Council website to look at council job vacancies, report abandoned vehicles, potholes and broken streetlights, look at planning applications and pay for certain council services.

But over the next year the council intends to expand the service using £200,000 Government funding.

This will include allowing residents to book and pay for more services online, making council internet pages available in foreign languages, helping people to apply for a bus pass through the website, allowing people to make planning applications online and providing a facility that shows the services and planning applications in a given postcode area.

The council also plans to improve its internal technologies, so that call centre staff have a database of frequently asked questions - which allows them to provide detailed answers quickly, and so that maintenance and pest control staff are allocated in a more efficient manner.

Stephen Horgan, Basildon Council's portfolio holder for resources, said: "The council's website is very well regarded and very informative compared to other district council websites and we are hoping to extend it."

A council spokesman added: "The council has implemented a significant number of initiatives, which account for 61 per cent of the overall requirements - in excess of Government targets."

Published Friday, May 30, 2003

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