Town & Parish Council Website Design
Council website design that helps residents self-serve — and makes life easier for clerks and councillors
Widescope designs and supports town council and parish council websites with a simple goal: make council information easy to find, easy to read, and easy to keep up to date.
If you’re looking for local government web design in Northumberland, we create websites that are mobile-friendly, accessible, and structured around the information residents actually need — contact details, services, meetings, minutes, policies, and local updates.
Council websites aren’t marketing sites. They are public information services. Residents arrive with a task in mind: find a phone number, check an opening time, read a notice, view agendas and minutes, download a policy, or understand how to report an issue. We design the site so those tasks are quick, clear and frustration-free.
We support councils with both new website builds and website improvements. That includes content structure, accessible page templates, better navigation, faster page load times and clearer calls-to-action (especially around contact routes and common resident enquiries).
We also understand the pressures on council staff. Clerks and officers often manage the website alongside everything else. Our approach focuses on making updates predictable and manageable — not a constant battle with formatting, broken layouts, or confusing systems.
Local government web designers in Northumberland
We’re based in Blyth and work across Northumberland and the North East — including Ashington, Cramlington and Morpeth. Many councils also work with us remotely across the UK. If you need a dependable supplier that understands council workflows, governance content and public-sector accessibility expectations, you’re in the right place.
What you get with Widescope
Town & parish council website structure
A clear site structure built around council services: meetings, committees, councillors, policies, finance information, local services, and community updates. We prioritise usability for residents and maintainability for the clerk.
Accessibility & usability improvements
Practical support to improve accessibility (including headings, navigation, colour contrast, link clarity and template consistency), helping your council website become easier to use for everyone.
Ongoing support, hosting & maintenance
Secure hosting, backups, monitoring and updates — plus a responsive support route when something needs changing, fixing or improving. No call-centre, no scripts.
Council website features we commonly implement
Every council is different, but these are common areas where we can make a measurable difference:
- Meetings pages: committees, agendas, minutes, meeting dates, and notices laid out clearly
- Document libraries: policies, procedures, reports and downloadable files organised logically
- News & announcements: updates that are readable on mobile and shareable on social media
- Councillor pages: roles, responsibilities and contact routes presented clearly
- Contact and reporting routes: simple “who to contact for what” pathways to reduce misdirected enquiries
- Community directories: local groups, clubs and services (when appropriate)
- Facility and venue pages: clear information for council-run halls, centres and community venues
- Bookings and forms: structured forms and booking journeys that reduce admin
- Recruitment pages: vacancies and application workflows that are easy to manage
If you already have systems in place, we can work around them. If you don’t, we can recommend a practical approach that fits your council’s resources.
SEO for town and parish council websites
SEO for local government is mostly about helping residents find the right page from Google. We build pages with clean URLs, strong page titles, structured headings and internal linking — so searches like “minutes”, “agenda”, “council meeting”, “allotments”, “community centre”, “contact the clerk”, or “report a problem” lead people to the correct place.
We also help councils avoid common issues that harm usability and search performance, such as duplicated content, confusing navigation, and large document dumps with no context.
Accessibility support and WCAG improvements
Council websites must work for everyone. We help improve accessibility through practical changes like:
- clearer headings and page structure
- improved link wording and button labels
- template consistency for predictable navigation
- mobile usability improvements
- image alt text and content guidance for editors
- advice and support for an accessibility statement and improvements roadmap
This isn’t about vague promises — it’s about making the site genuinely easier to use and easier to evidence improvements over time.
Our process for council website projects
- Discovery: understand your council services, workflows, users and pain points.
- Structure: plan navigation and page types (meetings, policies, councillors, contact routes, services).
- Design: accessible, readable layouts designed for residents and council content.
- Build: mobile-first templates, fast loading pages, and strong technical foundations.
- Content support: tidy up, restructure and improve clarity (or guide your team through it).
- Testing & launch: cross-browser checks, mobile checks and launch planning.
- Ongoing support: hosting, maintenance and planned improvements for the long term.
Town & Parish Council Client feedback
Some comments from councils we support:
I cannot rate this company highly enough, absolutely first rate service. IT is great when it works and a pain when it doesn’t, but with the support of Widescope, problems and improvements are worked through swiftly and without jargon. I’ve never had IT support like it, and their commitment to getting our website ‘just right’ is highly commendable. I wouldn’t want to be without Widescope at the end of the phone, they are worth every penny.
- S Eden (Ashington Town Council)
Fantastic service. Knowledeable speedy response nothing was too much trouble. Always helpful friendly and efficient
- S Young (West Bedlington Town Council)
The new site was delivered on target and we are about to start follow up meetings to review what is in place, and if any further improvements can be made. The new model site we have is also going to be used as a basis for another web site we will be launching shortly. During the time we have worked with Steve we have found him, and his team, to be fully appreciative of our needs and very helpful in assisting us to deliver our services.
- M Wilkinson (Blyth Town Council)
Town & Parish Council Website FAQs
Do you build town and parish council websites in Northumberland?
Yes. Widescope designs, improves and supports town and parish council websites across Northumberland and the North East. We focus on accessibility, clear structure and content that helps residents find answers quickly.
Can you help the clerk publish minutes, agendas and policies?
Yes. We structure governance areas so content is quick to publish and simple for residents to find — including meeting agendas, minutes, policies, committees, and statutory documents.
Do you support WCAG accessibility and council compliance requirements?
Yes. We provide practical accessibility support, including template improvements, content structure guidance, and help producing an accessibility statement and a realistic improvements roadmap.
Do you offer hosting, maintenance and security for council websites?
Yes. We provide secure hosting, monitoring, backups, updates and ongoing support so your council website remains reliable, fast and protected.
Can you improve an existing council website without a full rebuild?
Often, yes. We can improve speed, structure, navigation, accessibility, and content clarity without rebuilding everything. If a rebuild is the best option, we’ll explain why and propose a sensible plan.
Do you work with clerks directly?
Yes. We regularly work directly with town and parish clerks (and responsible officers) to plan improvements, organise content, and put a simple update process in place. We keep things practical and jargon-free, with clear next steps after each review.
Can you migrate documents safely from our existing council website?
Yes. We can migrate minutes, agendas, policies and other documents into a cleaner structure with sensible naming, while keeping public access working. Where possible we preserve or map old links to avoid residents hitting dead ends.
Can you help with Assertion 10 and digital compliance?
Yes. We help councils work towards the requirements of Assertion 10 by improving accessibility, content structure, document publishing practices and website governance. We can provide practical recommendations and support ongoing improvements so you can demonstrate a clear, managed approach to digital compliance.
What areas do you cover?
We’re based in Blyth and work across Northumberland (including Ashington, Cramlington and Morpeth) and the wider North East. We also support councils remotely across the UK.
Ready to improve your council website?
If your current site is difficult to update, hard to use on mobile, or confusing for residents, we can help.
- Town council and parish council website builds
- Accessibility, WCAG and usability improvements
- Minutes, agendas and policy publishing structure
- Hosting, security, backups and ongoing maintenance
Local Government
