Issue - meetings

Committee considered a report which provided an update on progress and implementation of the new Council website.

A review of the Council’s website had been undertaken to enable it to be more mobile friendly, easier to navigate and use, and also meet accessibility standards which the Government had recently introduced and which came into force on 23^rd September 2020.

Research was undertaken and other council’s websites investigated for best practice.  This led to a template being developed that contained a simple A to Z of Council services rather than departmental or service specific structure and would save any unnecessary maintenance as and when departmental responsibilities changed.

A facility of being able to search the website by speech was also being tested, however, it was noted that this may only work with Google Chrome.  Members and staff with a microphone enabled device were encouraged to try this speech facility and any feedback would be welcomed by the Communications Team.

The new website was launched on Friday 18th September 2020 with initial feedback being very positive.  The website would be fully accessible by April 2021.

A Member commented that he had looked at the new website and at Planning in particular but had found it hard to navigate and still difficult to find what he was looking for.  Another Member noted that this was also the case in searching for available Council houses. The Communications, Marketing and Design Manager replied that both the Planning and Housing pages were provided by an external website provider that the Council subscribed to and neither were in the control of the Communications Team.  However, the Communications, Marketing and Design Manager would speak to Housing to see how Members could access the site in an easier way.

In response to a query from the Scrutiny and Elections Officer, the Communications, Marketing and Design Manager advised that any documents which had been on the old website but were not on the new website would need approval from departmental managers to be reinstated.  Any information relating to Scrutiny would now need to be on the Mod.Gov system and not the Council’s website.

Moved by Councillor Ray Heffer and seconded by Councillor Rose Bowler

RESOLVED that progress on the new Council’s website be noted.