Graffiti buster wins prize

Shey Cobley, who joined Oxford City Council a year ago, has redesigned the authority's website, and launched a pilot scheme allowing residents to 'photo-report' graffiti and abandoned vehicles.

The scheme has already proved successful, with householders snapping examples of graffiti from around the city, and sending them to the council, which can then send out teams to remove it.

Ms Cobley, 28, is also studying for her PhD at Oxford University, where she lectures in 'e-government'.

She fought off stiff competition to take the Society of IT Management's (Socitm) Graham Williamson Challenge Award.

She will travel to India to forge links with local and national e-government officers and see first hand developing IT projects in the north of the country.

She said: "I'm really excited about going to a country that's so rapidly expanding in the IT industry.

"It's going to be a real opportunity to see how another country approaches online service delivery."

City council leader John Goddard said Ms Cobley was a worthy winner of the award.

He added: "Shey has made a massive contribution to driving this agenda forward and the great value of a 'learning through travel' award is that everybody involved benefits from it.

"Shey and those in the north of India who she will visit, will learn from each other.

"Oxford City Council and the people of Oxford will, in due course, benefit from the fresh ideas and further improvements that Shey will bring to her job when she returns. We're all really proud of her."

The Graham Williamson Award was launched in 2004 in honour of the former head of IT at Argyll and Bute Council who died in an accident in 2000.

It provides a budget of up to £5,000 for the winner to undertake a work placement at an overseas local authority to broaden their understanding of IT developments.

President of Socitm, Rose Crozier, presented Ms Cobley with her award at the society's annual conference in Belfast.