Community Council Website Design
Does your community council need a fresh new website that’s easy to update and comes with full support? DoodleIT offers a modern, responsive and easy-to-use website design for your community council. We can also include a section on the local area and perhaps list local businesses as well as community events.
Community Council Website Design
Our community council websites are easy to update
We will show you how to make changes and upload minutes and agendas with ease. Of course, we will also be there to help if things go wrong.
Meeting the legal requirements of a community council website is vital, however, we also feel it is important to involve the local community with pages for local businesses, events, schools and clubs.
DoodleIT has designed many Community Council Websites across North Wales.
Community Council websites need to adhere to certain legal requirements in order to comply with current guidelines. Here in North Wales, they are normally required to be bilingual.
Examples of community council web design
Key requirements for community council websites
- Websites need to be hosted securely using HTTPS
- Data needs to be secure and backed up daily
- Documents need to meet accessibility guidelines and be available in PDF format
- Contrast needs to be sufficient to make it easier for visually impaired users to see content
- The structure needs to work with modern screen readers
- Fonts need to be clear and of a specific size
- Clear contact information and affiliations for councillors
- Community council web design needs to be responsive working on all devices mobile and desktop
Data Protection: Community council websites should comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. This includes ensuring the appropriate collection, storage, and processing of personal data and providing information on how data is handled.
Accessibility: Websites should meet the accessibility requirements outlined in the Equality Act 2010 and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1. This means making sure the website is usable for people with disabilities, such as providing text alternatives for images, captions for videos, and easy navigation for screen readers.
DoodleIT consider all these things and more when designing community council websites.
Typical pages required for a Community council website design
As a guideline to meet current best practices we recommend the following pages for community council websites:
Home page
This is normally an introduction to the area with some nice imagery showing local buildings or views.
Community councillors
This page will be used for councillors’ contact details and affiliations. It is also nice to have a small headshot here too.
Accounts or financial
This page is used for audit reports, statements and annual returns.
Meeting dates, agendas and minutes
This page lists planned meetings and agendas along with minutes of past meetings.
Notices and planning
Any planning applications and notices can be listed here.
Public documents
Any public documents can be listed here
NOTE: It is always best practice to use PDF documents over Word or Excel as these documents can present a security risk and be easily modified.
Whilst updating pages is very easy we will always be here to help if you need assistance. We provide training in the use of the website.
Community council web design for the wider community!
We usually recommend broadening the reach of community council websites to not only deal with council business but to also highlight the community in general.
Pages for places to visit and see as well as information about local businesses can make the website more useful for the community.
What pages should a community council web design have?
We recommend that you have the following pages so you can meet the legal requirements for a community council website as well as involve the community. You can always have more pages if the need is there:
Pages required or a community council
There’s a lot of information that a community council needs to display on their website. This list is not comprehensive but a good beginning and covers the basics.
- Home page
- Community Councillor’s contact details
- Meetings, Agendas and Minutes
- Notices and Planning
- Public Documents
- Accounts and Financial Information
Pages for the community
We find that adding information for the broader community encourages residents to use the website as a community hub.
- Local Businesses
- Local Clubs
- Key places to see and visit
- Events
- A Little History
- Schools and Playgroups
What next?
If you’d like to know more about creating a website for your community council please contact DoodleIT on 01824 702375 and speak to Peter or Anthony.