PLANS to drive further forward Clackmannanshire Council's digital transformation will be tabled at Kilncraigs tomorrow (Thursday, April 18).

The key aim for the next six years will be the enable a significant shift toward online services and will build on past progress, which included online payments, bookings and fault reporting.

One of the clear principles will be to make sure public services will always be delivered digitally as the first option where it makes practical sense and where it is considered to be more efficient.

But the plans did say: "We will ensure that services remain accessible to citizens and businesses that are not digitally enabled."

According to the vision, the local authority of the future will be built on themes of being digital by default, self service, and with an emphasis on payment as you book for services.

It is hoped that implementing the digital strategy, said to be a "key enabler" of the council's wider corporate plan, titled Be the Future, will lead to 24/7 availability, improved access to services, better customer experience and quality of information and greater resilience among other things.

This would all come while the council would benefit form lower operating costs and a reduced carbon footprint.

Council papers to be tabled tomorrow added: "Digital transformation is driving significant changes across all aspects of society.

"It is a key theme for Scottish Government and an important component of transformation for all local authorities."

Work to enhance the Wee County council's digital shift will focus on three key areas of digital leadership to equip all employees with the skills required, digital foundations to build strong technology platforms to enable the transformation and the development of digital services to allow customers to take advantage of online options.

Outlining the wider context, the draft Digital Strategy 2019-25 said: "Technology is changing the way in which we live, learn and work.

"Improvements in availability of high speed internet access and the spread of smart personal devices is driving the move to deliver services online and is changing people's expectations of how, where and when they access services.

"Increasingly the services we access in our everyday life are delivered as digital by default."

The plan added that it sets out "how Clackmannanshire Council will adopt the use of digital to support its vision of being a valued, responsive, creative organisation through collaboration, inclusive growth and innovation in order to improve the quality of life for every person in Clackmannanshire."