The Wealden website, which gets more than a million visitors every year, has had a facelift. The changes will make the website more accessible to all residents whatever their needs.
“The Wealden website, www.wealden.gov.uk, is our busiest office,” said Councillor Philip Lunn, Cabinet member with responsibility for customer services. “People use our website to find out information, pay bills, submit planning applications and report problems. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. We want it to be as easy to use and simple to navigate as possible. We have removed around 2,000 pages from the site which were no longer necessary. We used information about how people used our old website to make the new site much easier for our customers to use. And backed up those findings with expert advice to make the site more accessible.
“We have also held customer workshops and run a customer survey to make sure our improvements are on the right lines. We are particularly grateful to the Wealden Disability Involvement Group for their contribution to the design process.
“As ever, we welcome your own feedback about the changes. Please feel free to do so through the Contact Us facility which you will find at the bottom of the home page.”
The architecture of the new Wealden website allows a range of new technologies to be supported by the site, helping the Council’s Drive-to-Digital programme. This has already saved the Council over £750,000 over the past three years. Members of the public can now carry out over 100 separate transactions through the My Wealden portal which can be accessed from the website. Last year more than 72,000 transactions took place this way.
The new design is fully responsive, which means the website layout changes to suit the device being used to view It. This could be a smartphone, tablet, laptop or personal computer. The accessibility features include ReadSpeaker which allows the text on the website to be read out loud, or translated into another language. An enhanced zoom function helps users who prefer a larger text or simpler design.
The website complement’s the Council’s weekly MyAlerts email newsletter. This keeps residents informed of their weekly bin collection days, local planning applications and the latest Council news. Sign up for MyALerts
