Why is Newham Council Website so unremittingly shit?

[Epona]

Seriously, it may look all fine with its fuscia pink branding, but it's a nightmare to find any information.

Also, they have just removed the "pay more than 1 bill at a time" facility from their online payment page. WTF, it's a complete step backwards. I can't be the only person in the borough who has to pay more than 1 bill a month, why remove the "add to basket" function and make me enter my card details for each damn payment?

If anyone from Newham Council happens to read this - MAKE YOUR WEBSITE MORE DAMN USER FRIENDLY FFS.

 

[ViolentPanda]

In the last five years, I've had to use the websites for Lambeth Council, North Norfolk Council, Wandsworth Council and Shepway District Council.
Every single one of them were crap to navigate, lacked some very ordinary facilities, and weren't particularly accessible - screen-readers wouldn't work properly on 3 of the 4.
A cynic might come to believe that local authorities do this deliberately...

 

[Shippou-Sensei]

Maybe it's because Newham is kinda shit.


OK that isn't fair on the whole place I just happened to be forced to deal with some of the more annoying bits of Newham

 

[salem]

Every council is going to have pretty much the same requirements. They should just build one package that they can all use and modify with their own colourscheme, branding and content rather then reinvent the wheel dozens of times.

 

[Brainaddict]

Every council is going to have pretty much the same requirements. They should just build one package that they can all use and modify with their own colourscheme, branding and content rather then reinvent the wheel dozens of times.

I think this happens with smaller district councils and so on - I've certainly seen the same design on a few websites. Bigger councils are all structured differently, and do provide different services (and different levels of service in different things), and have different bits outsourced, so it would be quite difficult to come up with a one-size-fits-all website.

As for why they are all shit: think about the wages available for building large-scale websites. Approaching the hundred grand level for working for a big bank or the like, or getting stuck on about £30,000 at a local authority. Amazing that they can't attract better talent!

Edit to add: I'm sure it's also the designed-by-committee effect. If any organisations habitually design by committee, it is local authorities...