A website which plays a leading role in giving Leeds residents a say in how they would like to shape their city has been taken offline because it doesn't work properly.
On Monday, Leeds Initiative - which is backed by Leeds council - launched its city-wide What If Leeds consultation which gives Leeds residents the chance to say what they'd like their city to be like in 20 years' time. Part of the consultation involves a website - www.whatifleeds.org - where people can take part in discussions and set up their own subjects to debate.
But a series of technical problems with the site - which was put together by an external company - led to the council taking it down yesterday. It's expected to be live again by 4pm tomorrow.
The glitches have led to some frustrated residents setting up their own temporary 'What if Leeds' website - http://grou.ps/whatifleeds/ - so the debate can continue.
And council chiefs have agreed to take on board the comments posted on the unofficial site as part of the official consultation.
Not 'council bashing'
The site has been set up by Mike Chitty and John Popham. Chitty has written about some of the issues on his Community Development blog - but stressed he wasn't 'council bashing'.
One frustrated user, Phil Kirby, said that he wasn't being antogonistic towards the council and was 'pulling their leg a little'. But he added:
"I tried to post something on the first day, spent hours, and tweeted them nicely. Still not got a response. Yesterday I finally managed a small post on the site, just mentioning (nicely) that having to type comments in 4pt serif font wasn't exactly conducive to the conversation and asking when the site would be accessible to people with less than hawkish vision. Still haven't got a response.
"And the site is down again. Amazing that a couple of chancers sorted out a forum site within minutes, one that works, and one that cost nowt."
Andy Carter, head of communications at Leeds council, said:
"There have been a number of unfortunate technical problems with the What If Leeds website. The company which designed it on our behalf has been working to correct the faults."Until they are fixed, we have taken the site off line altogether and are redirecting visitors to the other channels which are available for them to be able to contribute to the debate."
Those links are: http://grou.ps/whatifleeds/home, on Facebook , or via Twitter @whatifleeds.
Martin Dean, from the Leeds Initiative which is running the What if Leeds consultation, has posted on the What If Leeds blog about some of the issues.
What do you think? Have your say in the comments section below.
Note: The second paragraph of this story has been altered to clarify that What If Leeds was launched by the Leeds Initiative - a strategic partnership between the public and privarte sector.
