AGILISYS, the York IT firm, has signed a £7.4 million contract to provide more than 500,000 Yorkshire people with e-government.

The company, based at Jarvis House, Toft Green, will now provide managed computer information services to Hambleton District Council and North Yorkshire County Council over the next ten years.

The £7.4 million falls far short of the original concept of a £276 million partnership to link nine Yorkshire Councils, with seven of them - including City of York and Ryedale District Councils - pulling out.

Agilisys still harbours hopes that the entire region will eventually share in its vision of offering 750,000 people in York and North Yorkshire the ability to make one-stop phone calls, send e-mails or make interactive internet calls to deal with local authority concerns.

It is a brave new world in which people will, for instance, be able to electronically submit or study planning applications, renew library books, notify changes of address for tax purposes or even pay car parking fines, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The seven dissenting authorities will now have to find ways to meet the Government's deadline to become computerised by the end of 2005. Chris Sellers, Agilisys's head of local government, said: "The opportunity is there for them to rejoin. Avenues haven't been closed. Meanwhile, we are getting on with it."

Agilysis is also buoyed by the decision of Cumbria County Council to sign its own seven-year information technology deal - a £50 million partnership which starts on March 1.

The contracts signed with North Yorkshire County Council and Hambleton District Council follow a successful pilot launched in both authorities by Agilisys last year, which will be used as the basis to roll out more intense communication links.

In Hambleton, the systems will better integrate the environmental health, leisure, planning and economic development for Northallerton, Stokesley, Bedale, Thirsk and Easingwold, plus more than 130 villages.

The Agilisys programme for North Yorkshire County Council, which covers the largest geographical area of any county authority in England and has 18,000 staff and a £700 million budget, will be in three phases.

It will build on an Agilisys-designed interactive web facility, creating a one-stop-shop phone inquiry system and building on the county council's programme of creating electronic access points in libraries.

Charles Mindenhall, chief executive of Agilisys, said: "We have worked very hard to see this partnership come of age. It has evolved significantly over the past year. It is testament to the skills and dedication of our staff that we have come this far."

Updated: 10:58 Monday, January 24, 2005