Matthew SparkesNorfolk County Council spent more on websites than any other local authority in the UK outside London last year.The council paid �233,962 to develop and run websites last year, a figure which does not include internal staff.Matthew Sparkes

Norfolk County Council spent more on websites than any other local authority in the UK outside London last year.

The council paid �233,962 to develop and run websites last year, a figure which does not include internal staff.

The figures come from a Freedom of Information request sent to every local council in the country by PeoplePerHour.com.

Around 70pc of councils responded, showing that overall spending on third-party website development reached �19.1million in the last year - a rise of 18.6pc on the previous year.

Of the many sites run by the council the two most expensive were the Norfolk schools website, costing �94,220 in the last year, and Connexions, which cost �96,432.

Paul Adams, Norfolk County Council's director of corporate resources, said one of the sites supports 436 schools and was visited 36 million times during the last year

The site reduces the need to pay for producing daily information for school staff, he claimed.

"We are mindful of these costs though, and one of the aims of our current organisational restructuring is to be able to share internal resources more effectively and cut down usage of external agencies,' he said.

The total also includes websites which are yet to launch, such as Norfolk Celebrating Talent, designed to help Norfolk people make the most of the 2012 Paralympics and Olympic Games.

Norfolk Police also came under fire for their website development spending earlier this year when it emerged that a redesign of their site cost over �250,000.