If your parish council is still running on a cluttered, outdated website – or worse, no website at all – you’re not alone. Across the UK, thousands of parish and community councils are operating online in a way that would make their residents cringe. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
In this post, we’ll walk through what good websites for parish councils actually look like, why the bar is higher than you might expect, and what to consider when commissioning or rebuilding your council’s online presence.
Why Your Parish Council Website Matters More Than Ever
Your website is often the first place a resident will turn when they have a question about a planning application, want to read the minutes from the last meeting, or need to find out who their local councillor is. That’s a lot of responsibility for a site that, in many cases, was last updated during a different government.
But beyond convenience, there’s now a legal dimension to consider. Public sector bodies – including parish and town councils – are required by law to meet the Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations 2018, which are based on the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) international standard. Fail to meet these, and you’re not just offering a poor experience: you may be in breach of your legal obligations.
A modern, purpose-built website keeps your council compliant, your residents informed, and your clerk’s workload manageable.
What Makes a Good Parish Council Website?
Not all websites are created equal, and websites for parish councils have some very specific requirements that generic web designers often overlook. Here’s what to look for.
1. WCAG Accessibility Compliance
Your website must be accessible to people with visual impairments, motor difficulties, or cognitive disabilities. That means sufficient colour contrast between text and backgrounds, keyboard-navigable menus and forms, properly labelled images and form fields, and a clear, logical page structure using heading levels correctly.
Crucially, accessibility can’t be bolted on at the end with a plugin. It needs to be built into the design and code from the ground up. Any web provider you work with should be able to explain exactly how they achieve WCAG 2.1 and 2.2 compliance – not just claim they do.
2. Mobile-Friendly Design
More than half of all web browsing now happens on smartphones. If a resident has to pinch and zoom their way around your agendas page while standing outside the village hall, something has gone wrong. A responsive, mobile-first design isn’t a luxury – it’s a baseline expectation.
3. Council-Specific Functionality
A website built for a solicitor’s firm or a restaurant is not going to cut it for a parish council. You need features that are specific to local government: easy upload and display of agendas, minutes, and reports; a councillor directory with role and contact details; a well-structured document library; planning application notices; public meeting schedules; and an accessible, GDPR-compliant contact form.
The best websites for parish councils are built on platforms that already have these features built in, so your clerk isn’t wrestling with workarounds every time they need to publish a new agenda.
4. Security and Reliable UK Hosting
Parish councils hold sensitive data and publish legally important documents. Your website should be hosted on secure UK-based servers, with SSL as standard, regular backups, and a team that monitors uptime. For councils operating under the .gov.uk domain, working with a provider experienced in gov.uk registration is a significant advantage.
5. Easy Content Management
Clerks are busy people. The last thing anyone needs is a content management system that requires a developer every time you want to change a phone number or add a new committee page. Look for a website platform like WordPress that gives non-technical staff genuine control over their own content – without the risk of accidentally breaking the layout.
Red Flags to Watch Out For
When reviewing proposals for a new parish council website, it’s worth being cautious of a few things.
Providers with no public sector experience can be a problem, since council websites have unique legal and functional requirements. A generalist agency that has never built for local government is taking a steep learning curve at your expense.
Vague accessibility promises are another warning sign. “We’ll make it accessible” is not an answer. Ask for WCAG documentation, audit reports, or examples of compliant sites they’ve built.
Check what happens after handover too. A good provider will ensure your team can manage the site confidently and will offer ongoing maintenance and support.
Finally, watch out for hidden costs. Make sure the proposal includes hosting, security updates, and technical support – not just the initial build.
Seeing It In Action: Claygate Parish Council
A great example of what a modern parish council website can look like is Claygate Parish Council. Clean, accessible, easy to navigate, and designed with residents and clerks alike in mind – it’s a good template for what parish council web presence should look like today.
What We Do at Zonkey
At Zonkey, we specialise in building modern, accessible, and easy-to-manage websites specifically designed for town, parish, and community councils. Our sites are secure, mobile-friendly, and built to meet public sector accessibility standards – without the headache of managing it all yourself.
We’ve worked with councils of all sizes across the UK, from small rural parishes to busy market towns. We handle everything: design, build, content migration, gov.uk domain setup, and training. Our themes have been built from scratch with accessibility at their core – not patched with a plugin afterwards.
If you’d like to see more of our work, take a look at our portfolio or read what councils we’ve worked with have to say on our testimonials page.
Ready to Talk?
Whether you’re looking to replace an ageing site, migrate from a contract that’s coming to an end, or build something completely new, we’d love to have a conversation.
Get in touch with the Zonkey team today for a free consultation.
01225 667 977
councils@zonkey.co.uk
www.zonkeycouncilwebsites.co.uk
Photo by Amy Hirschi on Unsplash