New £70,000 website planned for Cannock Chase District Council

In a meeting of the full council last week council were asked to approve the release of the money to ensure the ongoing security of the Council’s IT infrastructure and to procure a new website.

This comes as the current platform, Drupal version 7, will not be supported with software updates after November 1, 2023 this leaves the council open to cyber attacks and security breaches.

The current website www.cannockchasedc.gov.uk has around 1.6 million page views a year and was created seven years ago.

A council report states that the website is “not only a vital resource for the Council to promote its work and services, but also saves the Council money”

Currently the residents can use the website for online housing services to report matters such as repairs, look at planning applications and to find out what the council is doing.

Introducing the motion to the council, Councillor Robert Hughes, Innovation and Resources Portfolio Leader told the council “the new website platform is essential to ensure the councils IT infrastructure.

“The new website will continue the council’s commitment to improve residents access to services”

This was supported by the Councillor Olivia Lyons, Leader of the Council, who said “cyber threats are continually improving, they are very very clever now

“What this does is provide not only an opportunity to mitigate the risks that we are exposed to as a local authority but it actually gives us an opportunity to update the content and the accessibility to the residents we serve”

However Councillor Andrea Muckley (Green) had an objection to the cost of the new website. “With regards to cost I was told that £70,000 was way too high or way too low depending on what we’re looking at”

In response Councillor Justin Johnson (Con) said “if we don’t upgrade the system I dare to think about the much the cost to the council would be if our systems were to be compromised, which no doubt they would be if we don’t go ahead with this”

It is understood that the authority is in the final processes as part of the procurement process to secure a new website.