News

North East IT specialist Rocket Solutions has completed a key project to support the new unitary authority changes set to take place in the region.

Rocket Solutions has worked closely with Durham County Council to develop a new web portal to support and advise residents in County Durham in preparation for changes to the local government – set to take place in April 2009.

The New Era site was created to give members of the public access to information about the move from a County and Districts Local Government to one Unitary Authority.

Following the success of the site, an additional 126 websites were also created for each newly elected councillor to focus on building strong communication links between councillors and members of the public. Each site contains key information, blogs, feedback forms, agendas and any relevant news.

All the sites were developed using Microsoft SharePoint 2007 and Rocket Solutions provided expertise in the architecture and design of the sites, mentored Durham County Council’s in-house team, provided security and external deployment and all technical support and maintenance.

Justin Short, Director at Rocket Solutions, said: “This has been a very successful project.”

“Durham County Council needed to implement a project which would ease the transition to one authority. The New Era site provides local people with all the information regarding the changes and how it will affect them. The additional sites are also innovative and strongly focus on communication between councillors and local residents.

“Using Microsoft SharePoint technology we were able to create and develop these websites, which will continue to be progressed and updated throughout the transition.”


Five counties are currently going through the unitary changes including County Durham, Northumberland, Cornwall, Shropshire and Wiltshire and once up and running the new councils are set to save over £75m each year. The savings will be directly invested into improving frontline services or used to reduce council tax bill pressures for 2.1 million people.