HARLOW District Council and other local authorities in Essex have been working together to ensure that the people will soon be able to pay for local council services and charges over the internet.
It follows an agreement between EssexOnline, the Essex e-government partnership group, and e-Business solutions company, Bucks.Net.
The agreement to jointly develop an electronic payment services portal paves the way for easy and secure payments over the web for a wide range of local authority services and charges.
Although the first pilot use of the payment engine will be for card based collection of excess parking fees, the system's security and flexibility will rapidly lead to the provision of web-based payment facilities for everything from council tax, rents and business rates to leisure facility fees.
Individual Essex councils are working to a schedule to roll out their online payment facilities over the next few months, both on their own web sites and through the information and services portal for the county.
EssexOnline project leader Keith Archer said: "The flexibility and easy integration provided for by Bucks.Net means that online payment facilities can be implemented across Essex's councils far more quickly and cost effectively than we ever thought possible before."
April 6, 2003 10:00
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