News items will be published in this Blog and will appear in reverse date order, newest first
Accessible council websites
I have asked Bramham parish council to make two of its websites, bramham.org.uk and historicbramham.org.uk accessible by adding SSL certificates so that communication with visitors is secure.
Their reponse has been to say that “The council does not administer bramham.org.uk and historicbramham.org.uk and there is a note on the council website advising that that the council is not responsible for the content of external sites”.
This contradicts the copyright information on both websites in addition to seventeen plus mentions of the council on the terms and conditions page of the historicbramham website
The online parish magazine
The recent resurrection of this bramhamvillage.org website was prompted by the fact that the online parish magazine seemed to have disappeared from sight.
The Issuu website (https://issuu.com/allsaintschurchbramham) to which visitors to the parish council were directed had ceased to be updated more than two years ago.
Another Issuu website popped up about a year ago (https://issuu.com/annepalmrer – notice the typo) and had magazines added intermittently. Individual magazine dates were difficult to determine as their dates were not given in the footnotes.
The new parish council website now has two magazines published on it rather than pointing to the Issuu website – February and March 2021 (https://bramhamparishcouncil.gov.uk/the-parish/useful-links/). These are single column pdfs.
It is still not clear whether any of these versions of the magazine meet accessibility requirements.
If any magazine contributors want to publish their monthly reports on an accessible website (this one) just contact bramhamvillage.org using the form on the Welcome page
Review of Bramham Parish Council’s websites and their accessibility
The council invited residents to provide feedback on its websites and their accessibility. Here’s my contribution to that feedback.
Home Page
The link that takes the viewer to a page listing past agendas lists them in chronological order from 1st July 2020 to 8th January 2020 instead of newest first.
Link to minutes provides minutes in pdf format instead of html.
Page: Members of Parish Council
Pam Corrigan’s email address is incorrect.
Helena Buck’s email address contains two errors
Link to Committees and working groups is not accessible because of the way that screen readers aggregate links. The whole line
“The council has a number of Committees and Working Groups. Click HERE for further information”
should be the link.
The same comment applies to the Leeds City website link and the link to the Register of Interests and Declarations.
The link offering more information about the parish council should be expanded to read
“For more information [about the parish council] contact our clerk” and have the section in square brackets added.
Pages: Accounts, Policies and Procedures
All the reports listed are in pdf format but not html
Page: Neighbourhood Plan
The link to the Neighbourhood Development Plan should comprise the full line:
“Click Bramham cum Oglethorpe Neighbourhood Development Plan 2018 – 2033 to read the full plan”
The link also overwrites the current page. It should open in a new tab.
The link to the Neighbourhood Plan website needs to comprise the whole line:
“For more information about the Neighbourhood Plan Go to www.bramham.org.uk”
The link overwrites the present page. It should open a new tab.
The website bramham.org.uk does not have an SSL certificate and is identified by the browser as “Not secure” which will discourage visitors from remaining on the site.
Page: Bramham Pavilion
Terms and Conditions of Hire and Large Events Policy are both in pdf format but there is no html version.
Page: The Parish
The link to the Village facilities needs to be made more accessible.
It also takes the visitor to the old website page.
Page: Useful Links
The historic Bramham website is not secure or accessible.
Page: Contact
The reCaptcha in use is Version 2. There is a more effective version 3
The 2012/13 version of the Council’s website is still online and has never been cancelled.
Steve Cooper
(M) 07966 355054