5:29pm Thursday 16th July 2009
By Tom Shepherd
THAMES Valley Police has been criticised for spending more than £100,000 redesigning its website — even though there were no problems with the old one.
Figures released under the Freedom of Information Act show the project cost £72,903.76 plus the salaries of four IT workers who spent four months working on it.
But the force has defended the redesign as “important” because its previous site was criticised for being cluttered and difficult to navigate.
Senior officers pushed ahead with the redesign for the site because they thought “the force needed a website which allowed more interaction with the public”.
But last night Mark Wallace, campaign director for the Taxpayers' Alliance, a watchdog that scruntinises the way taxpayers’ money is spent, said it was a complete waste of public cash.
He said: “This is a staggering amount to spend on a website – particularly in the middle of a recession when the police are supposedly strapped for cash.
“Thames Valley Police should think about what its mission is — fighting crime or maintaining a super-glossy web presence.
“They should have stuck with the old site and focused on getting police out catching criminals.”
Gerry Webb, chairman of Blackbird Leys Parish Council, said the cash should have been spent on high-visibilty patrols, not just after crimes had been committed, but as a preventative measure.
He said: “It think £100,000 for a website is unbelievable — you can’t justify it.
“If that’s what it cost for Thames Valley Police, what has it cost for the rest of the country’s police forces? The money should have been spent elsewhere.”
The cost of the redesign could have paid the salaries of six police community support officers for a year.
Thames Valley Police defended the expenditure as necessary to meet Government standards and accessibility guidelines.
Force spokesman Danny Donovan said: “To do this, the website had to be reconstructed.
“This provided the opportunity to redesign its look and feel, and also put it into a ‘content management system’ (CMS).
“This was important as the previous site had been criticised for being cluttered and difficult to navigate.
“We had previously purchased a CMS system for our intranet, so the costs were reduced when compared to purchasing a new system.
“The chosen supplier was selected based on their experience with information-rich sites, using an in-house CMS, having a user-centred approach, and a competitive price.
“The website is now hosted internally which saves on external hosting costs and will help with the future development of the site.
“The redesign also included consultation with the public – and feedback on the new design and navigation has so far been very positive.”
tshepherd@oxfordmail.co.uk
The new-look site can be seen at thamesvalley.police.uk
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