Easier way to see how Council decisions are made

Modern Gov
Modern Gov

Improving our transparency and explaining our decision-making processes is an important part of how we give residents confidence in our work and the way we deliver services.

This week the Council has launched a new way for anyone with access to the internet to find out more about our public meetings and what is talked about by councillors when they take place.

We have brought in a new platform called ModernGov to our website to help residents find out when public meetings are held, to read reports which councillors will vote on and to find the minutes of meetings so the results of votes can be scrutinised.

Extra tools which residents will be able to use thanks to ModernGov include:

  • a calendar style view of all meetings
  • the ability to subscribe to individual committees – users will receive an email alert every time papers are published
  • a tool to download all meeting dates into a personal calendar
  • functions to make notes on individual papers on a screen in real time

Users will see very little difference in practical terms as the platform will be embedded in our website, although it will replace our existing committee pages.

ModernGov is also a good example of our commitment to the climate, and cutting costs, by reducing the number of committee documents which need to be printed on paper. This will be achieved by making them easier to work with on a computer or tablet.

The platform is already used by a number of councils in the south east, including Surrey County Council. As well as running seamlessly through our website it is also available as an app. Bringing it in is the next step in our five years digital transformation programme to modernise the systems we use.

Visit our ModernGov committee pages

Published: 26 January 2022