The Whakatāne District Council’s website has been ranked as the best local government site in the country, for the fourth year in a row.

The Association of Local Government Information Management Supreme Website award was announced last week, with the Council site again heading the assessments of New Zealand’s 78 district, city and regional councils.

Council Public Affairs Manager Ross Boreham says the achievement is unprecedented in the history of the ALGIM awards and shows that smaller provincial councils can compete successfully with their 'heavyweight' metropolitan counterparts.

"The award is based on independent assessments of accessibility, best practice and enquiry response time, plus a self-assessment of functionality and online services," he says. 

"The ongoing success of our website reflects the continuous effort made to maintain its usability and upgrade online services. Compared to most Councils, our investment is minimal, but we have a consistent focus on making content accurate and accessible, and ensuring that it's easy for people to navigate around the site and find the information they’re looking for.

"Our Customer Services team also plays a key role by ensuring that public inbox inquiries are responded to swiftly."

Mr Boreham says the Council team won’t be "resting on its laurels", and will be reviewing ALGIM’s assessment of the site to see where further improvements can be made. Additional online services are also planned, including the introduction of searchable property files once a major digitisation project is completed in 2019.