As the first levels of democracy in the UK, Town & Parish Councils have many duties. Add to this the need for transparency and we are reminded that the often-overlooked website is a key part of a Council’s ability to carry out these duties in a compliant manner. Our Website framework/templates also offer the best value.
My Parish or Town Council
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Parish/Town Council Websites Challenge
(The many tasks of a Parish or Town Councillor)
As the first level of democracy in the UK, Parish & Town Councils have many duties. Add to this the need for transparency and we are reminded that the often-overlooked website is a key part of a Council’s ability to carry out these duties in a compliant manner. Now with GDPR in place as well as WCGA 2.2 compliance, accessibility, securing and ensuring the privacy of that communication has become a potentially high risk for a Council’s budget. The packages offered here by TEEC take all this into account and provide the best value solution.
Challenging times, during the Covid-19 pandemic, meant lots of additional information and support being needed and provided through things like the Parish Website. One advantage of using the template is the ability of clerks, councillors, and volunteers to all add content as almost no programming skill is needed to make 95% of all changes. A key feature that catches out many is the need to support the Royal Bridge protocol. This is built into the council template.
The Parish Council Websites Template was suggested by TEEC’s MD (Cllr Adrian Abbs B.Sc.) as a direct result of becoming a Parish Councillor for Greenham in 2018. Having seen the challenges that Parish Councils face, he commissioned the template, and to ensure a high-quality solution is available, he has setup within TEEC the hosting of this template, complete with a package of services available to anyone that needs it. The template is free to use for any Parish Councils or Community Project Teams, even if the hosting is with another company.
The template is easy to adapt to your exact needs. Each page is either automatically populated as you add things like meetings, events, notices, Amenities etc. Or you can manage the layout and content of a page by using various widgets (modules) and adding them exactly where you want. When we deploy the template, you will get an example of each page which can either be simplified or made more complex.
It should be all the control you need, but without the need to be a web programmer.
Latest Parish News Feature
This feature below auto updates your home page as you add news items. We are using it to tell you about our own latest features
Our Latest News
Newsletter May 2025
England
01
May 2025
Using MyParishCouncil for a Newsletter
Introduction
We have kept the functionality for Newsletter very simple as our experience has indicated that Newsletters tend to fall into two types.
i.e. Sophisticated or Simple
For sophisticated ones, there is usually some software or solution that already exists to be able to manage the format of the newsletter in great detail. Trying to replicate that or capture all of that existing functionality would not be considered good value due to the costs associated with providing it.
However simple newsletters which act as outbound communication for what’s going on and what’s coming up is supported in the following way
What we provide
First we provide a widget that can be placed where you want on a web page that allows you to collect the email address of anyone who wishes to sign up for your Newsletter. This also includes the checkboxes to confirm you have permission to send the future communication by email according to GDPR regulations.
That list of emails can be accessed by the responsible person for the list (such as the clerk) in the admin part of the solution. They can export the list at any time as a .csv file. They can then copy and paste those emails into their email client and BCC those subscribed.
All communications of this nature must now have an unsubscribe method which is often simply a reply to the email sent saying “Unsubscribe”
As the person who sends the newsletter normally monitors the replies, then if they receive such a response, they can go to the admin area of the website and unpublish that newsletter email. This ensures, that the next time a list is exported, that email is no longer included.
What else do we provide
The website template already supports News Posts. This consists of a top image followed by a “What You See Is What You Get” WYSIWYG area.
As part of the support we offer for Newsletter’s, we provide a Microsoft Word Template. When this is used and content added, it can be simply copied and pasted into this WYSIWYG area and allows for the Newsletter to be posted as a news item on the website.
Also as Microsoft Word supports saving a document as a .pdf then the newsletter can also be saved this way.
This means when the newsletter is sent out to those that have subscribed there are at least 3 options.
- To send them an attachment as a .pdf (everyone can read this format on any device)
- To send then an attachment as a word document (still popular but not universal)
- Send them a link to the newsletter post on the website. (See this example)
Finally
If you have a Facebook page for your community, then you can connect your news posts to that Facebook page. That means as you post you newsletter on your website it automatically appears on your Facebook page.
Use the contact form to ask us any questions you have about Newsletter support.
Help (What word elements can be used when pasting across)
Heading 1 ,2 and 3 – They become H1,H2 & H3
Subtitle
Strong
Underline
Italic
FontSuperscript
FontSubscripe
How it looks on different devices
Local Mapping Widget
England
01
May 2025
Having listened to several councils, who have indicated they wanted an interactive map where they could show their assets on, we are now launching that solution.
At the moment you work with us when creating the boundary for a particular area but we will be launching a tool to go along with the feature so councils can manage it themselves.
Do contact us if you are interested in being an early adopter. The feature is Free Of Charge for 2025.
Local Services Widget
England
10
April 2025
As part of our ongoing enhancements of the template, we are now making a Local Services widget available to existing and new customers.
As with all our widgets you can place it anywhere on a page. Then as you add more services, you simply use the widget form to create the detail and its automatically added to the page or pages where you have placed the widget.
Example feature for council Services
It auto updates any page where you have placed the Services widget (Module).
Testimony From Altarnunparish Parish Council - http://altarnunparish.co.uk/
‘I have just had a new website completed by TEEC’s - My Parish Council team and the whole process and experience exceeded my expectations.
The service was courteous, friendly and very prompt. The team I dealt with developed an excellent understanding of my individual needs and concerns and took personal responsibility for delivering what was promised in a very friendly, supportive and business-like manner.
This company is very easy to do business with, they get it right first time and I have no hesitation in recommending their product and service.’
Robin Turner
Altarnun Parish Clerk
Example History Feature
The feature is normally added to a home page. It auto updates as you add History Items relevant to your Town or Parish.
Parish Council Website Template
Help for Parish Councillors and Clerks
As an unpaid volunteer or clerk your time is important but often limited. By using this Parish Council template you can be sure that it provides a compliant solution, with a team of people working full time to support it. This ensures it is:
- Always there (monitored and fixed if an outage occurs) 24x7x365
- Regular Backups
- Up to date with the latest standards for usability WCAG 2.2 (working across Desktops, Tablets, Mobiles and TVs)
- Compliant with UK security and data protection legislation (GDPR etc.)
- Tested regularly to ensure it works on new releases of web browsers (software like Google, FireFox, Safari and Microsoft Edge)
- Has new features available as the needs of the Parish Council evolve
Contact us on 01635282361 for more details.
We won't just try and sell you something, we will help you through the correct approval process so you can start saving time and money as soon as possible. This includes:
- Details on what will be needed for the various meetings to get approval to change
- Presentations and notes to share with Councillors proving the costs saved and the improved ease of use for Councillors, Clerks and Parishioners
- A specification so you can run a thorough tender process
- Contracts etc to appoint your new supplier
Regular Backup
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