Update on HDC Councillors websites

In February 2010 I looked at the personal websites provided for HDC Councillors. I thought I would take another look at how the personal websites are going. I found the following:

Keith Baker - Last updated 28th June 2010 - 2 months
Ian Bates - Last updated 24th March 2010 - 5 months
Barbara Boddington - Last updated 13th August 2010 - THIS MONTH
Peter Bucknell - Last updated 6th September 2010 - THIS MONTH
John Davies - Last updated 17th August 2010 - THIS MONTH
Peter Reeve - Last updated 9th June 2010 - 3 months
Michael Shellens - Last updated 9th October 2009 - 11 months
Mike Simpson - Last updated 29th July 2010 - 1 month
John Watt - Last updated 12th May 2006 - 4 years 4 months
Richard West - Last updated 2nd June 2010 - over 3 months

Out of 52 Councillors 10 have personal websites. 3 out of these have updated within a month. 4 further councillors have updated in the last 3 months. 2 with 6 months. The longest is over 4 years.

Whilst some Councillors are making more use of the facility the vast majority are not. So why carry on providing this facility. It is not as though free blogs and websites aren't available elsewhere on the internet.

HDC Councillor Personal Websites

Whilst researching a piece on Andrew Gilbert I found he had a Council provided personal website. I see other Councillors have the same facility. So I thought I would take a look through and see how up to date they all are. This is what I found. I started with a St Neots District Councillor.

Cllr Andrew Gilbert Page updated: 01/10/2008 - 1 year 3 months ago

I then moved onto other District Councillors

Cllr Keith Morton Baker Page updated: 07/11/2008 - 1 year 2 months ago

Cllr Ian Bates Page updated: 24/05/2006 - 3 year 8 months

Cllr Peter Bucknell Page updated: 06/01/2010 - THIS MONTH

Cllr Peter Mitchell Page updated: 16/01/2007 - 2 years ago

Cllr David Priestman Page updated: 06/04/2009 - 9 months ago

Cllr Peter Reeve Page updated: 08/01/2010 - THIS MONTH

Cllr Michael Shellens Page updated: 09/10/2009 - 3 months ago

Cllr Mike Simpson Page updated: 10/07/2006 - 3 years 6 months ago

Cllr John Watt Page updated: 12/05/2006 - 3 years 8 months ago

Cllr Richard West Page updated: 23/12/2009 - 1 month ago

Out of 51 Councillors 11 have these Personal websites. Of these 2 have updated this month. 1 just over a month ago. 1 has updated 3 months ago. The other 7 haven't updated there sites for over 6 months.

This just shows how badly our Councillors are communicating with their electors. I feel this needs to change. I feel it is time to withdraw this facility and allow the councillors to use their own initiative in communicating with their electors. With some notable exceptions (Cllrs Bucknell, Reeve and West) this facility is not being used by the vast majority of councillors and should be closed down.

Something else missing from the HDC website!

I saw a link to the Petitions page as HDC wants to encourage online petitions. So I thought I would give petitions a try. So I went to the page and read through the blurb. The last sentence says:

Any individual wishing to submit an electronic petition should click the link on the right.

But there is no link on the right!

A larger version here.

New HDC website getting better but....

Looking at the HDC again I find the site is getting better. Many of the errors are being corrected and the site looks and feels is better. But there are still errors and when it comes to the political party links page this seems to have been written by the Liberal Democrats. On the website it says:

Political Parties

Councillor details can be accessed using the link on the right.

This page also details links to local political parties.

Links to the national parties can be found on these websites.

Clicking on the links to local parties I find: 

The UKIP site goes to the national site. There is a local site.

The Cambridge Green Party website link is for CAMBRIDGE. There is a perfectly working Hunts Green party site.

The Cambridge Conservatives is for CAMBRIDGE. There is a perfectly working HCCA website.

The Cambridge Labour link is for CAMBRIDGE. There is a local site for Labour.

Only the Liberal Democrat link actually points to a local website.

I know the local websites are pretty dismal but I find it strange the only local links that work are for the Liberal Democrats! There is one website that has found these local links and that is er..hum.. this one. Just look to the right and there are most of the links I can find to local political party websites. I know this can be confusing but Huntingdonshire is NOT Cambridge!