A supplementary edition of nations and regions news, which appears in Socitm’s annual magazine, In Our View, with recent stories from Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and every region of England.
Scotland
City of Edinburgh Council has published a digital and smart city strategy that aims to ensure all residents have access to digital skills and affordable digital services, and will reuse existing capabilities rather than build new ones.
Wales
Ceredigion County Council and local residents are taking part in the Rural Connectivity Accelerator, a UK government-funded project to test the reliability of low earth orbit satellite internet connections in rural areas.
Northern Ireland
Belfast City Council has opened a free augmented reality exhibition at Belfast City Hall which features an animated seahorse, three-dimensional maps and the city’s hidden river, with support from BT.
Republic of Ireland
Dublin City Council in taking part in a two-year study on the use of drones in commercial and civic life, including for deliveries, search and rescue and public safety, with Research Ireland, Maynooth University and the Irish Aviation Authority.
North-east England
Tees Valley Combined Authority is installing six eight-metre smart columns in central Hartlepool that each include two 55-inch screens, speakers, street lighting, environmental monitors, traffic counters and in some cases 5G network cells.
Yorkshire and the Humber
Bradford Council has proposed saving up to £1.6 million through increased use of automation and digital technology in proposals for the 2025-26 financial year, including through use of voice and robotic automation in customer services.
North-west England
Greater Manchester Combined Authority has launched a volunteer training programme to support nearly 93,000 digitally excluded people aged over 75, with community training provider Starting Point and the area’s 10 boroughs.
East Midlands
Nottinghamshire County Council, the county’s seven district and borough councils and Birmingham City University have produced an interactive mobile connectivity map based on data from monitoring devices in bin lorries.
West Midlands
Shropshire Council has helped develop a free digital agroforestry design toolkit, produced by mapping software company Land App with Defra, the Tree Council and Natural England, to help farmers and estate managers integrate trees into farmland.
East of England
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority has approved an extension of its digital connectivity strategy that plans to eliminate ‘not spots’ in mobile coverage and increase the availability of full fibre internet.
South-east England
Surrey County Council has launched a digital support service for unpaid carers managed by carer community Mobilise that includes peer support, applications for carer’s allowance, support guides and an AI-powered assistant.
South-west England
Somerset Council is introducing a 24-hour automated phone payment service for council tax, business rates, rents, parking fines and invoices that will ask customers to use phone keypads to enter payment details.
London
Hillingdon Council will aim to improve processes and their design as part of its new digital strategy, which includes an extra £9 million of spending over three years, its chief digital and information officer Matthew Wallbridge told UKAuthority.
For links to press release pages of local authorities in the UK, Republic of Ireland and Crown Dependencies, view Socitm’s local authority press release directory.