Norfolk police defend cost of website redesign

The force says its redesigned site is "a whole new digital platform"

Norfolk Police spent more than £250,000 redesigning its website, a Freedom of Information request has revealed.

This compares to Essex police which spent £75,000 and Northamptonshire police's website revamp cost £65,000.

The request, made by a member of the public, revealed the total cost for the Norfolk police site, that was launched last month, was £254,662.08.

Defending the cost Anne Campbell, of Norfolk Police, said no web investment had been made for eight years.

The BBC contacted 10 Norfolk-based web design companies which estimated the cost of such a website redesign to be between £10,000 and £110,000.

In response to this Ms Campbell said: "We haven't invested in our web presence for eight years so we've had an awful lot of catching up to do."

It's a staggering amount of money, I'm gobsmacked as I'm sure many other people are as well Gary Dickenson, web designer

She said the figure quoted was from a two-year budget and that other forces budgeted yearly for their website. She said it was difficult to compare "like with like".

Norfolk police would not identify the agency it used to redesign its website but it is believed to be The Reading Room, a London-based consultancy, which quotes Norfolk Constabulary as one of its clients.

Gary Dickenson from Creospace web design said: "It's a staggering amount of money, I'm gobsmacked as I'm sure many other people are as well.

"There's a lot of detail that we can't see but based on our estimation we thought around £10,000 just to develop the website itself."