There are already groups working on improving services in Local Government. I volunteer for mySociety and through that discuss all sorts ways the internet could be better used improve people’s interactions with local and national government. I also follow what Cambridge residents Dave Briggs and Paul Canning are up to, both of whom are working on transforming the way local government uses the web.

UKGovCamp 2010 is the kind of group Edward is suggesting - though its not focused on Cambridge:

http://ukgc.wikispaces.com/

Back to the local matter - one big problem the Cambridge City Council has is that it can’t attract web-staff. It has had no leadership in its web department for a couple of years now; it has been offering people the job but they’re not taking it up.

The problem is that without a passion for openness and engagement from the elected councillors change won’t be driven. We’ve got full council resolutions not being acted on by officers and Lib Dems not grasping the reigns of power.

It strikes me that the City Council website is the sort of problem calling out for citizen involvement to make it clearer and more user-friendly. There are enough open government specialists and veterans of the computer industry that you could easily convene a pretty good working group on these issues.

Richard, have you considered trying to get together such an organisation? Whilst I imagine the council wouldn’t look terribly favourably on it and it isn’t enough of a hot button issue to spark that much interest, I wouldn’t think that the introductory steps would be that difficult and certain council members would likely support it.

Failing that, a variation on the excellent FixMyStreet application (very well done for that, by the way, it’s enormously useful and I look forward to giving that a go) sending automatic emails to the council whenever a bit of documentation can’t be found might be useful for hurrying them up.

I was clearly wrong to state: I “would have found it much quicker had it been available on, or via the City Council website”.

As far the Cambridge City Council’s website is concerned, the document you require is linked from the ‘Budget Process’ page ( http://www.cambridge.gov.uk/ccm/content/council-and-democracy/how-the-council-works/council-finance/budget-process.en ) as
http://www.cambridge.gov.uk/public/docs/Council%20Tax%20leaflet.pdf. I believe it has been there since its publication in March 2009. The archive of financial material seems alive and well at http://www.cambridge.gov.uk/ccm/content/council-and-democracy/how-the-council-works/council-finance/archived-financial-publications.en

Thank you for your encouragement and interest.

Best wishes

Ian Nimmo-Smith