Borough residents are being encouraged to discuss their experiences of dealing with Dudley Council online to help improve the service for users.

The local authority is looking for 36 volunteers to take part in the Let’s Get Digital project. They will be split into three groups of 12, with each group meeting four times early next year.

Council bosses want to hear views from people who may have interacted with the local authority on any of its digital platforms or services, for example through the council’s Facebook or Twitter page, or the website or app. They also want to hear from people who are less computer literate to find out how they can make things easier for people who still rely on face to face or telephone contact to sort issues.

Anyone interested in taking part needs to fill in an online form before December 13. Entries will be assessed from December 16 and those chosen to take part contacted by The Democratic Society. Participants will receive £80 for taking part as well as any travel and childcare expenses.

Dudley Council’s public health team has funded the project, which will be managed and co-ordinated by non-profit organisation The Democratic Society. Deborah Harkins, director of public health and wellbeing, said:

"We want to make our digital services the best they can be so they are easier to use and meet the needs of our residents. We want our digital services to be as easy to use as possible, as that will lead to an improvement in the ability of residents to interact with the council.

“We also want to understand why people might use face to face or telephone services over digital services, and how we might be able to support people to access online services.

“We want people with a range of experiences to take part in this project. All that we ask is that people are open to using the internet and can talk about the difficulties or obstacles they face when trying to be digital."

People interested in taking part can fill in the online form at dudley.gov.uk/letsgetdigital.