Better council website called for to answer residents questions

A reader has written in and says a better council website would be the answer to problems that arise in the community.  A facility to ask questions and have answers from an official source is suggested.   The reader writes:

".....if there was an official council website with questions put to councillors and answers displayed for all to see then that would serve the purpose also. But there is not and no one ever knows who has asked who what and what the answers were...."

This is certainly a positive suggestion and would facilitate a direct approach to those concerned, often saving councillors (and officials) much work.

The letter appears in full on our Readers Letters page.

Cllr. Peter Rees has written in to say that such a facility appears on the NPT CBC website and has been there for some years.    We will certainly look at this and report back to readers in an effort to give fair and balanced reporting.

The Follow-up

Cllr Peter Rees is quite right, a questions facility DOES exist on the NPC CBC website - but it leaves a lot to be desired.   Perhaps it is best summed up by another reader, who says:

"There might be the facility to ask questions but where is the list of questions already asked? Where is the list of answers given and by whom?

This once again is a dead end facility where you can ask a question yes but the answer comes to you directly and is not displayed for the benefit of all."

The reader asks Cllr Rees:  "Do you know of a list of questions previously asked and answered on the council site?"

Editorial Note   Further comments from readers and Cllr Rees can be seen on our Readers Letters page.

COMMENT  -----   Q for Questions

Navigation on a website is so important.   Finding something you want can sometimes be difficult.   For an example, we did a search for QUESTIONS on the NPT CBC website - we show the results below:-

Why not compare with the search facility on the HOME page of this website (did you know we had a search facility?) and see the difference.

It is pretty obvious that a search facility is only any good when it produces results.

Now that we brought this facility to your attention we hope it will be useful for other searches.

We feel we need say no more.