Improving services for residents – two key strategies agreed
Two new strategies for improving the way people can access public services have been approved by St Albans City and District Council.
The Council has been looking to make it easier for residents, businesses and community groups to carry out transactions and gain information or advice.
This has involved a number of ambitious initiatives in recent years including the redesign of the Council’s website and the creation of the online MyStAlbans District account.
The latter allows registered users to complete numerous actions at the touch of a button such as paying Council Tax or ordering car parking vouchers.
It also provides information specific to the user’s location such as waste collection dates.
A new Digital and ICT Strategy as well as a Customer Services Strategy were adopted by a meeting of the Council’s Policy Committee on Thursday 10 February.
These cover the years until 2024 and are intended to map the way forward for further improvements.
Since April 2020 as the pandemic got underway, there has been a significant rise of 136% in the number of households that have signed up for a MyStAlbans account taking the total to 45,261.
Each month there are an average of 2,390 service requests made by users through the portal, actions that in past years would have had to be conducted by phone, letter or visits to Council offices.
The District’s population is predicted to rise from its current figure of 149,000 to 178,000 by 2040, increasing demand for the Council’s services.
A majority should be able to access services online, but the Council will remain aware that a small proportion of residents will have to be engaged by other means.
Councillor Karen Young, Vice Chair of the Policy Committee and Lead Councillor with Responsibility for Digital Transformation, said after the meeting:
We have made great advances in changing the ways we communicate with residents and other customers.
We've allowed more transactions to be completed digitally making it easier to deal with the Council and provided more information through MyStAlbans and our website.
We have encouraged residents and businesses to interact with us digitally, rather than having to come to our offices, saving them and us time and money and we will continue to work on further improvements to this.
However, we remain committed to supporting those customers who are unable to use online services or who have complex issues. Our strategies ensure we will continue to provide for their needs.
Picture: Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash
Councillor contact: Councillor Karen Young, Vice Chair of the Policy Committee and Lead Councillor with Responsibility for Digital Transformation: cllr.k.young@councillor.stalbans.gov.uk; 07495 504570.
Contact for the media: John McJannet, Principal Communications Officer: 01727 296130; john.mcjannet@stalbans.gov.uk