Bracknell Forest leads the pack with shopping and services card

Bracknell Forest Borough Council (BFBC) is one of the public sector's leading smartcard innovators.

Since 2001, it has provided its residents with a free smartcard card, the Edge, which can be used for shopping and services across the council's constituency.

Currently, local residents can use the card to access library services and pay for the loan of movies or music, as well as getting discounts at over 100 stores and restaurants.

Now, the council is working to add a wider range of services, such as cashless payments for local leisure facilities, bus fare and parking payments, and links to other public services like the health service or police.

Its ambitious work has led to the council being appointed by the government to programme manage a £4m national project for the development of smartcard policy and technology in England.

It will use the funding to explore a whole range of issues surrounding the expanding use of smartcards, with an aim to establishing a national framework for the development of technology that can make local services more accessible, convenient and cost-effective.

'The funding for the national smartcard project means that our experiences and those of similar organisations can be bought together to expand the possibilities for smartcard technology across the country,' said Helen Style, programme director for the project and head of policy development at BFBC.