Accessibility statement

We want everyone to be able to use our website easily. On this page, you will find information on how we are making our digital services more accessible, how you can customise your browsing experience, and how to request information in a format that works best for you.

Central Bedfordshire 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 accessibility statement applies to the main council website: https://www.centralbedfordshire.gov.uk/.

Using this website

We aim to ensure that our website can be used as effectively and easily as possible by everyone. For example, that means you should be able to:

  • Zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen.
  • Navigate most of the website using just a keyboard.
  • Navigate most of the website using speech recognition software.
  • Listen to most of the website using a screen reader.

We have also included advice on our translate this website page on how to easily translate our pages into other languages using your web browser.

Compliance status

As a Council we are heavily investing in our web and online services to better serve all of our residents. Our new website, which went live in July 2026, directly reflects this commitment to digital inclusion.

The core code of this new website is fully compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 AA standard. However, the website is currently partially compliant overall due to the historical content, document exemptions listed below which we are working on.

Non-accessible content

While our new platform's structure and code meet modern standards, we know some older content or legacy documents aren't yet fully accessible. For example:

  • Many legacy PDF and Word documents are not fully accessible to screen readers.
  • Some older videos do not have captions or audio descriptions.
  • Certain legacy third-party interactive tools may be difficult to navigate using only a keyboard.

Disproportionate burden

Document volumes

We currently link to over 6,000 PDF documents on our website. In addition, our committee services generate around 140,000 documents each year, and the Planning Department holds well over 1 million PDFs. Some of these PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services, such as user guides on how to access council support.

Fixing documents

We have assessed that it would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the No. 2 Regulations to fix all legacy documents published on the website since 23 September 2018.

Because the council stores its historical documents in cloud-based environments, tracking, isolating, and auditing the precise publication dates of these vast quantities of files presents an exceptional administrative challenge.

Cost and impact

If it took approximately one hour to review and fix a single document within the scope of the regulations, resolving just the core 6,000 PDFs would require roughly 1,000 working days. This does not include the additional 1 million plus planning and committee documents.

Fully meeting the requirements immediately would represent an unmanageable strain on our available resources and staff. We believe this impact is disproportionate, especially given that many of these historical PDFs are not essential to our current services or heavily utilised by disabled users.

Exempt content

The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix the following types of content, as they are exempt:

  • Pre-recorded audio and video published before 23 September 2020.
  • Live audio and video.
  • Heritage collections, such as scanned historic manuscripts.
  • PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 (unless they are essential to using an active service).
  • Maps (however, we will always endeavour to provide essential map information, like addresses, in an accessible format).
  • Third-party content that is outside our direct control and which we did not finance or develop.
  • Content on intranets or extranets published before 23 September 2019.

Feedback and contact information

If you need information from this website in a different format (such as accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording, or braille), or if you want to provide feedback:

We will consider your request and get back to you within five working days.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We are always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page, or if you think we are not meeting accessibility requirements, please email web.feedback@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk. Your feedback will be sent directly to our Web Team.

Enforcement procedure

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018. If you are not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 21 July 2026 and updated in July 2026 following the launch of our new website platform.

Our website platform is regularly tested using automated software provided by Siteimprove (siteimprove.com), alongside periodic internal manual testing.

This statement was last reviewed and updated in July 2026.

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