A quick look around Salford Council's My City Salford website reveals virtual tumbleweed everywhere you click...
'Say hello and join the conversation on the forum' invites one of the opening pages...The only person 'joining the conversation' is Gary, who works for Salford Council, imploring people to 'Nominate your community hero!!!'. No-one's bothered.
That latest post was from a month ago. The other 'latest' posts date back over three months ago. On the front page of the site, the main article being pushed is 'Baby Teeth Do Matter', posted six months ago, while only three News items have been posted in the last three weeks, all Salford Council-related articles.
Meanwhile, the Events section features ongoing activities that began last February, and the Sell, Share, Give section features half a dozen sales items from a year ago...
Welcome to Salford Council's self-described "21st century digital neighbourhood"; a "groundbreaking citizen-centric project"...
Launched in October 2017, My City Salford has only 837 registered users, out of over 100,000 households in Salford, and during the last month, September, had just 1,738 unique users, or an average of 58 people per day, a Salford Star Freedom of Information request reveals.
The website was developed at an extortionate public money cost of £180,000, funded via Andy Burnham's Greater Manchester Transformation Fund, and the contract handed to The Landing, a private company owned by Salford Council, to bring My City Salford to the community.
Pre-launch, the Council stated that "Previous 'what's on' or local events portals have been very much one-way communication platforms, with information and content provided by the sponsoring organisation.
"What's different in our vision is that over-time the Hub will become resident owned and driven" it added "The Hub will also be able to interact with ours, and partners, customer systems – ensuring a genuinely bespoke and tailored customer experience."
Hmmmm...Meanwhile, the Council won't reveal how much staff time is spent on My City Salford or staff costs... "A staffing breakdown cannot be provided as it is not the responsibility of one sole person to deliver this service" it stated in its FOI response to the Salford Star...probably because even its own staff aren't bothering to look at what is by any standards a horrendous expensive flop.
Of course, Salford City Council won the Digital Council of the Year for 2018...
...And then there's the My City Salford sister site, My City Health, a £118,000-developed site with static content imploring a Do It Yourself health ethic that is supposed to make up for cuts in these services...or, in Salford Council's words, "supports communities to do more for themselves...without the need to contact public services...".
For a full background see previous Salford Star article: Almost £300,000 To Be Spent on Council websites – click here
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