THE five councils covering Tyneside and Wearside have received national recognition for their work bringing technology to the streets.

TWICT, the Tyne and Wear ICT and e-Government partnership, is the driving force behind the open:tyne&wear initiative, which has installed 40 of touchscreen information kiosks in the area.

The kiosks give residents easy access to the advanced electronic services, irrespective of whether they have a computer or any information technology skills.

The scheme has been recognised in the inaugural e-Government National Awards run by publictechnology.net.