Reply: A really good point. I hope you did find the bus pass information on the Bus Passes page. As you have rightly suggested, a link to the Bus Passes page would be a good idea and help people so I have now done this. If you look at the page now, it should be nice and visible. Thanks for taking the time to feed this back to us.

Reply: Are you aware that you can download a PDF reader for free? Unfortunately there is no other viable alternative to presenting forms other than Adobe Acrobat (PDF.) If we put files in Microsoft Office formats we have a problem as noted by another user (see below.) Beyond these two options there are no truly viable alternatives. We considered offering downloads in two formats but in user testing people found this confusing and unnecessary. We agreed considering PDF reading software is available for virtually every computer (past and present - there's even a PDF reader on the Commodore Amiga!)

If you own an Apple Macintosh or a Linux system, PDF reading software is included with your computer as standard.

As such we're in a bit of a rock and a hard place as to what suits everybody. Virtually every other institution where a form has to be downloaded and filled in uses PDF as such we have no reason to change this as it is a de-facto standard. We are placing forms that can be filled in on the website on-line, however some forms require payment or a signature, other such as electoral forms have to be sent to the address applied for security purposes.

If you wish to download Adobe Reader (formerly Adobe Acrobat Reader) you can visit our Useful Software page that will guide you the download on Adobe's website.

Reply: It's not impossible. We used this format as the list is very long and was not particularly helpful on a webpage. I have now changed this to a PDF file.

We're not trying to keep the information secret, it was the quickest way to deliver the information people needed at the time and yours is the first complaint we received. We have now revised this to accommodate your needs better.

You do not have to have Microsoft Excel, you can download the free Excel viewer, or use OpenOffice.org, Apple's Numbers application and many others. We have a Useful Software page that can be found in our Help section that advises of alternatives to Microsoft Excel.

Reply: I'm a bit confused as to what you mean. Yes our website has changed but this page in terms of how it works hasn't changed in a good few years, it's certainly been laid out by planning like this since I have been here. Did you try clicking on the links on the Weekly List page? Nothing tells you to go to Adobe, just that the files are in the same Adobe PDF format as they have been for as long as this page has been around.

I would also presume you also left another comment on the Applications page The problem is the website is used by thousands of people, and whilst we try to please everybody, it's impossible to do that, all of the time - although I'd like to. That said, I have done what I can right now to improve things further in-line with the trouble you have encountered.

The page had to change as we were receiving a series of steady and common complaints about the Planning section and acted on them. Since then the feedback has been largely positive and the page's ratings have gone up, slowly but surely. That's not to say we can't make things better still, therefore I have made some tweaks that includes a Weekly Applications link on the Planning homepage, and included the phase "Weekly Planning Application Lists" in our A to Z Index. The biggest issue we had to resolve was making people aware that they can comment and track progress of an application using our on-line planning system, this wasn't clear before.

If you have further ideas of how to improve things, you can e-mail me directly on webmaster@worthing.gov.uk and if you like we can have a chat on the phone so we can address grievances properly if you like. I am very happy to listen and act to make things better where it is in the interest of the majority. Out of curiosity, was this the first visit you made to the website since we re-launched in May?

Reply: I agree, and I hope too that we can have this page updated regularly as we all want to know what is happening in our town. Even when there isn't any further development, I hope this will also be conveyed through this page. I have asked for photos where relevant to be put on this page and a forwarded on your comments to the Business and Economic Development team who created this page. Thanks!

Reply: Thank you. We had similar feedback about this section. We're copying what seems to be working on this page for our visitors on to other big sections of the website such as Environmental Health and Planning and Building Control (we have started on that.)

Reply: Good point well made. I'm sorry the website didn't have what you needed in the first place. Thank you though for telling us because I have talked with NCP Car Parks and put their contact details on this page so you can discuss general enquiries/issues relating to the car parks with them directly. There isn't a manager's name available but there is now the telephone number and the address. I hope this either helps you, and indeed others in the future.

Reply: The very blunt answer is yes they are all from the public. This page is here is so we are accountable for what we do, which is better than not being accountable.

If you want to have a chat about the problems you are encountering (I guess you must have, as you're doubting that anybody gets on with this website!), you can drop me an e-mail at webmaster@worthing.gov.uk and if you wish we can have a chat on the telephone and see what we can work out so we can improve the website further.

Reply: Thankfully you also completed the website survey so my suspicion that you wanted to look for houses in Worthing for Housing Exchange was correct. I have spoken to Housing and we have put a page together here: House Exchange. I have also put some A to Z entries in as well for this. I hope this helps.

Reply: Oh dear. As a web developer my job is to develop this website so my attention is on websites including this one. As for OTT, I'm only assuming you refer to the customisable right hand side of the page. You don't have to do anything with that, it's there if you want it. It's there because our users asked if we could have all sorts of things on the homepage and it would be impossible to have all of them so why not let the user choose what they want? Certainly as I live in Worthing, I find it useful having the weather forecast and which day my bins are collected there, as have others who have responded. Much of what this website now is due to what people continuously requested, and it's worked.

I'm not sure what you think could be more clearly laid out and what facts you need. If you can e-mail me on webmaster@worthing.gov.uk you can tell me just what was wrong and we can start fixing those things where we can. That said, I won't be looking to "fix all of it" because the majority of people are getting on very well according to our survey. Specifics will help us to help you.