Sandymoor Parish Council

A website for a community that is still growing

Sandymoor is a new-build community near Runcorn, and its parish council is one of the newer ones in Cheshire. As more homes are built and more residents move in, the council needed a website that could grow with the area, at sandymoor-pc.gov.uk.

A young council is still working out how it wants to communicate. What it needed was not a fixed brochure but a clear, well-organised site that could take on new sections, projects and news as the community developed, without becoming a maintenance burden.

The brief

Sandymoor wanted a website that:

• covered the essentials a parish council must publish, done properly from the start
• had room for projects, news and a community hub as the council grew into them
• was simple enough for a new clerk to keep current
• was accessible and met the rules that apply to a council website
• felt welcoming to residents who are new to the area and new to the council

What we built

We built the site on our Classic package, with a structure that covers meetings and minutes, policies, finance, governance and contacts, and space set aside for the sections the council wanted to develop: projects, news and a community hub.

The layout is deliberately calm and uncluttered, so a resident arriving for the first time can see what the council does and where to find things. Every page meets the WCAG 2.2 AA standard, and the council has an accessibility statement in place.

We set up the starting content with the clerk and walked them through making changes, so the council can add to the site as the community grows.

The outcome

• all the statutory sections in place and correctly published from day one
• a clear home for projects, news and a community hub, ready to fill as the area develops
• a calm, accessible site that a new clerk can run without technical help
• a professional first impression for residents moving into a new area

Common questions

Is Classic enough for a growing council?

Yes. Classic covers everything a parish council has to publish, and a council can move up to Community later if it wants unlimited content and resident-engagement tools such as social sharing and email newsletters.

Can the council add new sections itself?

Yes. Classic includes the content editor, so the clerk can add pages, news and meetings whenever they need to. If they would rather hand a change to us, they can send it over and we make it, usually the same working day.

Does it meet the accessibility rules?

Yes. Every Parish Council Pigeon site is built to WCAG 2.2 AA, with an accessibility statement published from launch.

You can see the site at sandymoor-pc.gov.uk, or look at more of our work.