Broadband network brings local councils together for
e-government.
Buckinghamshire County Council has rolled out a broadband
network to speed up data sharing between councils and help to
reduce IT costs .
Buckinghamshire Council paid for the network using £2m of
government funding allocated to help councils modernise their
IT.
The county's local councils, which include Aylesbury and Chiltern,
will exchange data over the new network. It will also support
future e-government initiatives and contribute to the county's
efforts to meet the government target of delivering all public
services online by the end of 2005.
The broadband network was installed by network services company
Telindus, and was completed in April. Named BucksConnect, the
network was implemented on an existing IP-based network.
The main reason for the network was to provide a common medium of
communication for the departments and local councils within the
county. It will help to deliver public services more efficiently
and quickly, the county council believes.
Ken Boxhall, head of IT services at the council, said,
"Buckinghamshire is run along the traditional lines of council
infrastructure of county, district and parish councils, rather than
being a single, unitary authority.
"This means that the public receive a fragmented service and are
left wondering who to contact if a street lamp isn't working, or
there is a hole in the road. Until now there has been no single
point of contact so people have been calling the wrong councils and
departments," he said.
"It was important to provide an infrastructure that would support
the delivery of other BucksConnect and additional e-government
projects that may happen in the future - for example connecting
parish councils, partner organisations such as charities,
outsourced housing suppliers and other council offices such as
tourist and leisure facilities."
The broadband network has already cut costs for the council by
doing away with the need for local councils to have their own
internet connections. The council expects the network will pay for
itself within a few years.
According to Boxhall the the BT 100 LES network will pay for itself
in terms of sharing future applications such as those used for
mapping data - instead of having five systems the councils will
share one.
