The UK Government is planning to launch a national campaign to get more of us to communicate with local councils online.

Having already blown £4bn of taxpayers' money on its "e-Government" initiative, ministers now want us to use it.

Kicking off early next year the campaign will delight us with the "benefits of accessing council services online - including flexibility and convenience, and improved access to information".

And while bureaucrats acknowledge that there are plenty of people out there who are willing to contact their councils online, "there is evidence that current usage of council e-channels still lags behind public interest in using them".

"Our future plans are dependent upon winning citizens around to the benefits of using e-services," said Local e-Government Minister Jim Fitzpatrick. ®

Related stories

• Local councils adopt '24/7 culture' (23 December 2005)

  https://www.theregister.com/2005/12/23/e_govt/

• World passes by UK.gov websites (8 December 2005)

  https://www.theregister.com/2005/12/08/uk_gov_sites/

• Watmore government policies? (2 November 2005)

  https://www.theregister.com/2005/11/02/ukgov_it/

• Unspinning the government by text message (28 October 2005)

  https://www.theregister.com/2005/10/28/text_government/

• Government IT review could scrap industry council (27 October 2005)

  https://www.theregister.com/2005/10/27/uk_gov_it/

• e-gov head calls for Transformation Meditation (18 October 2005)

  https://www.theregister.com/2005/10/18/whatmore_calls_for_t-government/