Council Website Design

Finding the right council website design is one of the most important digital decisions your authority will make. Your website is the front door to your council — the place where residents go to find meeting information, planning documents, local news, and contact details. A well-designed council website makes all of this easy to find, accessible to everyone, and simple for your staff to maintain.

What Makes Good Council Website Design?

Council website design is different from commercial web design. It is not about selling products or generating leads — it is about serving a community. The best council websites share several key characteristics: they are accessible to people with disabilities, they present information clearly and logically, they work well on mobile devices, and they are easy for non-technical staff to update.

At Zonkey Council Websites, we have spent years refining our approach to council website design. Every site we build starts with the needs of residents and the workflows of council staff. We design around how people actually use council websites — searching for meeting minutes, checking planning applications, finding councillor contact details — rather than imposing a generic template.

Accessibility Is Not Optional

Under the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations 2018, every council website must meet WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility standards. This is a legal requirement that applies to all public sector bodies, including town councils, parish councils, and community councils regardless of their size.

Our council website designs are built with accessibility from the ground up. We do not bolt on accessibility at the end of a project — it is embedded in every design decision, from colour contrast and typography to navigation structure and form design. This means your council can be confident it meets its legal obligations from day one.

Council-Specific Features

Generic website templates rarely meet the specific needs of councils. Our designs include council-specific functionality as standard:

• Meeting calendars with integrated agenda and minutes uploads
• Councillor directory with profiles, contact details, and committee memberships
• Document management for agendas, minutes, policies, and financial reports
• News and events sections for community updates and public notices
• Contact forms with department-based routing
• Planning information and links to relevant portals

Built on WordPress

All of our council websites are built on WordPress, the world’s most widely used content management system. WordPress powers over 40% of all websites globally, which means your council is never locked into a single supplier. Your staff can update content easily using the intuitive block editor, and any competent developer can work with the platform if your needs change in the future.

Secure UK Hosting Included

Every council website we design comes with secure, UK-based hosting on ISO 27001 accredited servers. This includes daily backups, SSL certificates, malware scanning, and proactive security monitoring. Your council’s data stays in the UK, meeting GDPR requirements and giving you peace of mind.

Get a Free Consultation

If your council is considering a new website or a redesign of your existing site, we would be happy to discuss your requirements. We offer a free accessibility check of your current website, or you can request a quotation for a new council website design.

Call us on 01225 667 977 or email councils@zonkey.co.uk to get started.