Connecting a Coastal Community: A Modern Website for Swanage Town Council

The Challenge

Swanage Town Council approached us with two main issues. Their existing council website, which we had built years ago, had become dated, difficult to navigate, and failed to meet modern accessibility standards. Residents found it frustrating to locate meeting minutes, agendas, or other key documents.

At the same time, the town’s beach hut booking system was off-the-shelf, overly complicated, and hard to use. It wasn’t accessible, created a lot of manual work for staff, and often confused users, which limited bookings and revenue. The Council wanted a solution that was simple, accessible, and reliable, while reducing administration.

Our Approach

We started by reviewing the old site and its content structure, speaking with staff to understand their day-to-day challenges. This helped us plan a new website focused on clarity, accessibility, and easy navigation. We built it to comply with WCAG 2.2, ensuring users of all abilities could access content.

To improve document discoverability, we created a PDF indexer, making agendas, meeting minutes, and other documents searchable quickly. This saved time for both residents and staff, and made information far easier to find.

For the beach hut booking system, we designed and built a completely new platform. The interface was simplified, mobile-friendly, and accessible, while automating much of the manual work previously required. We made sure users could book huts quickly, see availability at a glance, and complete payments without confusion.