Six months after the city of Lowmoor began publishing every contract over £5,000 in a searchable format, a local bakery owner noticed that the council was paying three different suppliers for the same cleaning service.
The duplication had gone unnoticed for years because each contract sat in a different department. Once the records were public, a volunteer built a simple chart that made the pattern obvious. The council has since merged the contracts and expects to save about £80,000 a year.
Open data does not guarantee better decisions. But it changes who is able to ask the question, and that, officials say, is often the point.
The scheme has limits. Commercial confidentiality still hides some pricing, and smaller bodies have asked for help in formatting their records. But the council now treats the portal as a working tool rather than a showcase, and has appointed a data officer whose job is to keep it current.
