The latest council website survey from the Society of IT Management shows that the use of council sites grew by 29%. In the same quarter, Internet usage was up by 2.5%. The survey period coincided with the start of the Government’s take up campaign, but with many other factors influencing the situation, it is impossible to assess the impact the campaign had on usage.The take up campaign targeted local residents, rather than businesses, and there has been a marked increase of 33.8% between the average usage by local residents for the quarter before the campaign, compared to the following quarter when the campaign was in progress.

Read more on COUNCIL WEBSITES GET MORE VISITS…

FEARS THAT NEW AGENCY HAS BEEN WEAKENED BEFORE ITS WORK BEGINS

The Government’s new official watchdog for the wildlife and the countryside, which begins its work this week, is at risk of being too poor and too weak to make a difference, according to environmental campaigners. The concerns over Natural England have been raised by the Campaign to Protect Rural England as the new body takes over responsibility for work formerly done by English Nature, the Countryside Agency and the Rural Development Service.

The CPRE is worried that cuts to the core funding of the new body have seriously weakened it as it begins its work. Tom Oliver, Head of Rural Policy at CPRE, said one of the most important aspects of Natural England’s work should be to make a substantial contribution to safeguarding the quality of life for everyone and the CPRE is keen that the new organisations should show leadership in setting up robust and effective monitoring of countryside quality and in particular, tranquility. The Government promised this in 2000 but the CPRE said this had yet to be fully achieved.

Read more on FEARS THAT NEW AGENCY HAS BEEN WEAKENED BEFORE ITS WORK BEGINS…

NEW BIODIVERSITY DUTIES COME INTO EFFECT FOR PUBLIC BODIES

From this week all public bodies will have to take issues of biodiversity into account in all the work that they do. The new duty comes into effect under Section 40 of the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act, which sets out to raise the profile of biodiversity in England and Wales.

Read more on NEW BIODIVERSITY DUTIES COME INTO EFFECT FOR PUBLIC BODIES…