Working with a Committee – Parish Council Website Build
We were delighted that an existing client recommended us to quote for the job of building the Stillingfleet Parish Council website. So, in the summer of 2016 I sat down withe a sub-group of the council to tease out exactly what they needed from a website – they had provided a comprehensive but rather complex plan of the information they would need to have on the site.
Working through their vision we were able to simplify this structure and give them a competitive quote which was successful.
Statutory Requirements
Since then we have worked with this sub-committee to produce a site that:
- meets the statutory requirements of a parish council website
- easy to navigate and particularly easy to find key information such as minutes, agendas and the flood policy
- easy for the new Parish Clerk to update
To do this we have used the sidebars and footer to the full and used post categories to sort the agendas, minutes, annual reports etc. We have limited the drop down boxes from the menu and put links within the pages instead. We have used a pdf embedder to make it easy to look at documents such as the Village Statement.
It is also important that the site is very secure, so we have added an extra layer of security which flags up every login.
Free Three Month Support
The site went live in November and we are now in the middle of our free 3 months support for snagging. We often find putting a site live when it is about 95% complete is a good idea as it then gives an impetus to double-check everything and provide the final bits of information required.
This proved the case in this instance, the Parish Council being very proactive in checking over the site and ensuring all looked correct. Because the Council are in the process of appointing a new Clerk I have been adding on new information during the snagging period. Once the Clerk has been appointed they will be trained up on how to update the website and receive a manual which provides bespoke step-by-step instructions in updating the website.
Visit the website at www.stillingfleetparishcouncil.org/