Parish Council & Town Council Websites
Accessible, Compliant and Easy To Use – from £499+VAT
Aubergine are the UK’s leading experts in purpose-built, GDPR and WCAG 2.1 AA-compliant, accessible websites for parish councils & town councils.
- Easily migrate from your current website
- Transparency Code-ready, WCA 2.1AA and GDPR compliant
- Built on a proven, .gov.uk WCAG-compliant framework
- Includes comprehensive, free training.
- WCAG2.2AA compliant ready
Easy-to-use and with council-specific functionality, our websites include templates for agenda and minutes documents, policies, meeting calendars, news, venues, events, councillor & staff profiles, A-Z directory of services, planning application displays and much more.
What our parish & town council clerks think
Accessible Websites for Parish & Town Councils
Easy to use
Simple, step-by-step migration process
Proven council functionality & features
Transparency Code-ready
GDPR compliant
Accessibility compliance to WCAG2.1 AA standard
Accessibility compliance to WCAG2.2 AA ready
Comprehensive training
Friendly support via phone and email
Online video-based learning centre
Modern, mobile-friendly design
Many different design options & templates
SLCC official partner
See Our Live Council Websites
Pricing
(precept below £100k)
(precept above £100k)
Annual subscription, SSL hosting & support
FREE .gov.uk domain for 1 year
1 year of content transfer +5 years of AGAR
FREE training
Support from council sector experts
FREE monthly accessibility publishing refresher webinars
Annual subscription, SSL hosting & support
FREE .gov.uk domain for 1 year
1 year of content transfer +5 years of AGAR
FREE training
Support from council sector experts
FREE monthly accessibility publishing refresher webinars
SLCC member price £899 + VAT
|
Optional Extras
|
|---|
| Quarterly WCAG2.1AA (& WCAG2.2AA) compliance scan & report service: £299 + VAT per year |
| Online payment module: £500 + VAT one-off |
| Form/Poll/Consultation builder module: £50 + VAT per year |
| Event ticket module: create events, add tickets with prices and sell online £250 + VAT one-off |
| Local Authority Planning Portal Integration module £100 + VAT per year |
| Councillor portal module: secure portal for councillors with individual logins £100 + VAT per year |
| Domain registration: .gov = £100 + VAT per year, .com, org, .co.uk or .org.uk = £30 + VAT per year |
| Optional Extra Support: |
| Extended annual support package: £720 + VAT |
| Transfer of existing website content to new site charged at £25 + VAT per hour |
| One-to-one training – half day session at £199 + VAT** |
** You are welcome to arrange a shared session with other public bodies, and share the cost.
Ask A Question or Arrange A Demo
Community Engagement App
Would you like to engage with your community more? Talk to us about our Community Engagement App! It comes in both Apple iOS and Android versions and is easily controlled by you through a simple-to-use admin area.
Either partnered with our WCAG 2.1AA compliant website, so you have just one place to update the website and app, or as a standalone communication tool.
Features include push notifications, directory lists and much more. Find out more about our Community Engagement App.
Who are Aubergine?
Established in 2002, Aubergine’s management team have over 30 years’ experience in website design and coding. We are an 11-strong team of designers and developers based in Leighton Buzzard. We’ve worked with organisations such as The UN, GambleAware, The Mayor’s Fund For London and the Society for Local Council Clerks, and councils of varying sizes from Watford Borough Council to Eaton Bray Parish Council.
We are Cyber Essentials certified, JISC authorised to manage all .gov, .mod, .nhs & .sch and Authority related domains, and we are official Google Partners.
We don't use plugins or widgets
Meeting accessibility is not about simply installing a quick and cheap (or free) plugin or widget. These can only address the very surface visual aspects of accessibility, and not very well. And the very fact that these tools require the user to interact and enable them to get the website usable for them means they fail at the first. Moreover, website accessibility is about removing barriers for the user, not adding them.
Our WCAG 2.1AA website package is built from the ground-up at code level. It automatically works with those users who rely in assistive technology so they don’t need to do anything for the website to work for them. You can read more here about why using plugins and widgets is will still give you an accessibility problem.
FAQs
Q: Do I Need A Compliant Website?
A: All parish, town, borough and city councils need a compliant WCAG 2.1 AA rated website by September 23rd, 2020.
Q: Can We Convert Our Existing Website?
A: Technically, yes – but the time required to do this would probably cost more than getting a new site that’s based on an already-compliant framework.
Q: Can I Keep My Existing Domain Name / Website Address For A New Site?
A: Yes. You could also choose to move to a .gov.uk web address, and redirect your old site to this.
Q: What Happens To Our Email?
A: If your email is currently provided by a GDPR-compliant service, it can remain there. If it’s hosted on your current web server, it probably isn’t GDPR compliant and you’ll need to move it. Aubergine can help you do that.
Q: What Is The Package Commitment Length?
A: It is an annual service.
Q: Can I Host The Package Website Elsewhere?
A: No. The framework and servers are configured to be WCAG 2.1 AA compliant and can’t be hosted on a different server.
Q: What Is An SSL?
A: SSL stands for “secure sockets layer” and is a form of security for websites that encrypts data going between a user’s browser and the website server. For GDPR compliance, any website with a contact form should have an SSL.
Q: Are There Any Other Designs?
A: The framework has lots of different design elements that you can place where you want. No two council websites will look the same.
Q: What If Our Website Links To Another That Has Non-Compliant Content (eg Facebook)?
A: You are not responsible for another party’s website. If you link to another public body website, it is their responsibility to make sure it complies.
Q: Can I Have Some Extra Features?
A: The package includes all the features a council would need. Extra functionality and upgrades to the framework will continually be added (without extra cost) – just let Aubergine know what you want to see added.
Q: Do I have to have a .gov.uk domain name?
If you are a parish council, you are not required to have a .gov.uk domain name. It is preferable to provide assurance to your visitors but not a necessity. You can operate from a .org.uk or similar TLDs (Top Level Domains). However, if you are a town, borough or city council, you should be using a .gov.uk domain. The Government’s Digital Service GDS) provide guidance on eligibility for use of a .gov.uk domain. Using a .gov.uk domain comes with responsibilities as set out in the guidance, one of which will require you to operate an email service for the domain for official verification and communication purposes. As a minimum, you will require [email protected] (or similar address). We recommend that this email service be provided by a GDPR compliant provider, such as Microsoft’s O365. We can assist in this set up.