Shinfield Parish Council Case Study

Located just south of Reading in the county of Berkshire, Shinfield is a civil parish consisting of 4,313 acres and around15,000 residents. Shinfield Parish Council is responsible for civil administration, providing the tier of local government closest to residents. The Parish Council’s vision is to improve the quality of life for everyone who lives, works and travels through the parish. They do this by listening to residents, keeping them informed of local news and developments, representing their best interests, delivering excellent services and value for money, and by supporting the local economy and protecting the local environment.

With the parish boundary having expanded and new housing developments increasing the local population significantly, Shinfield Parish Council undertook a strategic review to look at how it could better access and engage with the community. Key to connecting with residents was the commissioning of a new website. Over time, the existing one had become outdated and didn’t provide the informative, intuitive experience the parish council wanted to deliver. As well as being difficult for users to navigate, the old website had minimal functionality and could not be updated by staff without going through the company that had initially designed it.

“Our previous website was old-fashioned, basic and very ‘clunky’. Traffic was extremely low because most residents opted to go direct to the local Borough Council’s website for queries and information. Having surveyed the community about the project, we had a clear idea of our requirements. We wanted a website that could sit at the centre of our communications, be an interface between the Parish Council and residents, provide advice about all the services we deliver and function as a resource for community information.”

As residents ourselves, we were keen to assist the parish council in realising their vision. We were delighted when, following a competitive bid process, the project was awarded to Kreatif Design!

Working in WordPress, we have created a web solution that provides the Parish Council with a highly flexible communication platform and delivers a smooth, intuitive user experience for visitors. Our client’s previous website contained a high volume of content that had become unwieldy and difficult for users to search. We carried over much of the existing content but organised it so that it’s now much easier for visitors to get to what they’re looking for with just a few mouse clicks.The new website addresses all our client’s very specific requirements. In particular, it gives them the capability to easily edit and update critical areas without the need for external assistance or specialist technical expertise.

Integrating seamlessly with Rialtas (specialist administration software for town and parish councils), the website incorporates a high level of functionality. It provides the Parish Council with a powerful management tool to help councillors work more efficiently. They can be assigned to projects and file, search and access meeting documentation, including agendas and minutes. Residents can search council services, view councillor profiles, see upcoming council meetings and filter them by topic. In addition, they can use the built-in reservation system to book space in council-run venues and access comprehensive information on local facilities, amenities, clubs, events, things to do, places to visit and much more.The overall design is clean and uncluttered. We have used blocks of colour and plenty of white space to help the text stand out and make the site easy to navigate. On the home page, a banner scrolls through the locations covered by Shinfield Parish Council, a large calendar informs residents of upcoming meetings and events, and an interactive map (which is continually being added to) allows residents to explore points of interest within the parish boundary.The website is hosted on a managed, dedicated server for maximum security. Fully GDPR compliant, it is protected against denial-of-service attacks, can handle even the highest traffic levels, and backs up all data automatically.

“We always try to use local suppliers, and Kreatif was one of three companies we invited to tender for the website project. Their presentation made it clear that they were fully invested in the project: it showed us what the end result would look like, demonstrated they understood the brief and gave us the confidence that they could help us achieve what we wanted.”

“With numerous councillors involved, there was potential for the development and approval process to be slow, but with just Nick and I as the two key points of contact, things moved forward relatively quickly. We had weekly meetings, and at each stage, Nick prepared a plan for me to share with the councillors, showing how the site would look, and with his support, their confidence in the project quickly grew.”

“I’ve really enjoyed working with Nick, and the experience has been a learning curve. His assistance extended beyond just design. He has helped us with strategic input and ideas on how to integrate the community. I’m a WordPress user, but I hadn’t used the Elementor plugin before. Nick took time to show me how to use it to ensure consistency of fonts and styles throughout the site, pointing me to some really useful YouTube links to help me improve my skills.”