One member of staff sacked and four others disciplined due to internet misuse at Cheshire West and Chester Council

Oct 26 2011 by Gary Porter, Chester Chronicle

ONE member of staff has been sacked and four others have been disciplined due to internet misuse at Cheshire West and Chester Council.

The figures – obtained following a Freedom of Information request by the Chronicle – relate to incidents of internet misuse between April 2009 when the authority came into existence and August this year.

A staff member was sacked for ‘bringing the employer into disrepute’ after making a comment on a social media website.

Of the four employees disciplined one was due to ‘inappropriate use of Skype’ and another was punished for making ‘derogatory remarks’.

The other two disciplined workers resigned while the council was carrying out an investigation.

According to the authority they have a total of 4,977 accounts with internet access.

The Chronicle also asked for the 100 most visited websites by council staff during the month of August.

Google proved most popular with 28,487 hits followed by Facebook with 24,769.

Other frequently visited websites included the council’s own site (5,450), East Cheshire NHS (3,771), search engine Bing (3,108), social media networking site Tagged (2,926) and the BBC (2,631).

The council says the total number of hits a website URL receives ‘is not necessarily the most popular sites visited by staff’.

Hit counts include a site redirection, additional windows or pop-ups from adverts or notifications, a page automatically reloading and updates to show new information.

The council says staff are allowed ‘limited personal use of the internet in their own time’, as well as access to social media sites for business purposes.

This can include supporting the council Facebook page or communicating with the public.