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This accessibility statement applies to warrington.gov.uk
This website is run by Warrington Borough Council. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:
We’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand. AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.
We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:
If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille:
We’ll consider your request and get back in touch with you. If you cannot view the map on our ‘contact us’ page, call us on 01925 443322 or email contact@warrington.gov.uk for directions.
We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, please email digital@warrington.gov.uk or call 01925 443322 and ask for a member of the communications team who will be able to help you.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (the ‘accessibility regulations’). If you’re not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).
We provide a text relay service for people who are D/deaf, hearing impaired or have a speech impediment.
Our offices have audio induction loops, or if you contact us before your visit we can arrange a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter.
Warrington Borough Council is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.
This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances and exemptions listed below.
The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.
Following an audit by central government, several issues have been raised that we have now fixed and any remaining issues will be resolved with support of our third party web developers.
We know of the following issues:
We plan to address the issues by the end of September 2022.
Six56 Public Inquiry Core Documents
The core documents are from a variety of sources and some files may not be suitable for users of assistive technology. If you need a version of a document in a more accessible format then email the inquiry team (devcontrol@warrington.gov.uk)
Our most important content is provided on our main website, warrington.gov.uk, and we’re committed to doing monthly accessibility checks on this. Our building control web portal has accessibility issues. We completed an assessment and concluded it could not be upgraded to improve the service it offers.
Therefore, to provide a better user experience, we are replacing it with a with more modern, up-to-date compliant site by:
These expected deadline for completion is subject to change, but we will review progress monthly and update the completion dates if required.
Our IT team is committed to creating accessible solutions with the support of our website delivery team. However, we believe that trying to fix inaccessible portals immediately would be a disproportionate burden because the current solution is end of life, does not meet the current needs of the users, cannot be reasonably updated as per the current contract and therefore is on a planned decommission and replacement process. We believe that fixing the accessibility problems would be disproportionate because the relevant platform will be retired soon.
In reaching this decision, we have considered the following:
The assessment concluded the current APAS planning system cannot be upgraded beyond what it is in place today and needed to be replaced. A suitable alternative was found which answered the needs of users and has been scheduled to go live. As part of the assessment and tender documentation, some of the issues it identified were:
As a local authority, we are managing increasing front-line service demands (e.g. for adult social care) with reducing annual budgets. During 2020 and 2021 we have had to prioritise resources because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic making sure essential services could continue to operate. Our teams are now able to focus on more ‘business as usual’ activity and have a programme of work for our websites, which includes planning, building control and land charges.
As the current solution is end of life, does not meet the current needs of the users and cannot be updated to bring into compliance, at present, the best and quickest solution is to replace the Planning Portal with a more user friendly, compliant site, which we are currently in the process of delivering. The tender documentation for a new planning system included a measurement criteria regarding compliance with accessibility standards.
As an alternative you can get in touch with Contact Warrington who can help with finding out the information you need.
The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services. Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.
We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.
Where PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services, e.g. we have PDFs with information on how users can access our services, and forms published as Word or PDF documents. These are being replaced with online forms as part of our Change Delivery programme.
We have noted some accessibility issues with a number of PDFs on the site including:
A recent review counted over 5800 PDFs on the website, 77% of them being viewed 50 times or less (49% viewed less than 5 times). To update all PDFs to ensure accessibility we estimate to be 784 working days. This is based on an average PDF taking one hour to assess, update and review. We are also aware that a number of inaccessible PDFs currently on our website are third-party content, such as many hundreds of PDF representations from our Local Plan consultation which we have a duty to make available to the public but which we have not created. Our approach therefore is to focus our efforts on where we can gain the most benefit to the website user and are prioritising updates to those most used. This means that we will continually review our most read PDFs and ensure wherever possible that they are made accessible
If there is a specific PDF you would like to be made accessible or need help in understanding, you can let us know and we will get in touch to discuss your request.
This statement was initially prepared on 21 September 2020. It was last reviewed on 22 May 2023. This website was last tested on 22 May 2023. The test was carried out by Warrington Borough Council web team using Siteimprove software and live user testing.
You can read the full accessibility test report.