Ways to Find Information
Finding your information is easy!
It is our aim to provide you with as much rich information as possible and allow you to easily access and find this information.
Our website is constantly evolving and we are constantly upgrading and improving the search and indexes and information to make it easier for you to find what you are looking for.
Before re-designing this website we used information from you, our users, to ensure that there were several ways to reach information relevant to you, so a big thank you to those of you who contributed. This site will continually evolve, particularly during April and May as it is monitored to ascertain how it is being accessed.
We also looked at the statistics from our old site to gauge the most frequently visited topics and put them right up there on our homepage so that they are now accessible with just one or two clicks.
We also found that different people want to find information in different ways, therefore we have included various navigation methods to further increase the ease of use of this site. These methods are explained below.
The key ways to find information on this web site are:
1. Homepage Links
The Homepage has links to many parts of this site. These have been identified as the most commonly accessed pages on our site. There are direct links to most popular information across the whole of the front page, with the chief topics grouped in the middle of the page.
Top Bar Along the top of the homepage is a bar comprised mainly of online services. These are services available to you on a 24/7 basis;
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2. The 'A-Z'
Available from the main navigation at the top of the website, the A-Z provides a definitive list of available services, much like the index of a book.
For your convenience services are listed with 'alternative' titles. This means, for example, you should find 'Abandoned Vehicles' under both A for 'Abandoned..', V for 'Vehicles..' and C for 'Cars - Abandoned'. Again, this approach is to help you get the information you need regardless of the terms you use. When viewing information about a service, depending on that service, information will be available such as a short service description, a link to further explanation and contact information relating to that service. We have also included services which we haven't responsibility for, such as County Council services, again, to help you get the information you want even if we don't hold it ourselves.
Simply start to type the name of the service you're searching for and a list of possible services will appear below the search box. You can then simply click the service for which you need the information. |
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 3. 'Straight to information on' / Using CategoriesThis website's information is organised using categories that represent departments and topics within the Council. This provides a structure to the way in which all the information on the website is organised.
For instance, ' Paying Your Council Tax ' would be found under: Clicking on these sub-categories will navigate you to information relating to that particular subject.
Because ALL information is categorised in this way, the website automatically builds a relationship between forms, downloads, News items, Events etc. Therefore, the 'Related items' section that can be found on the right hand side of web content will take you to other sections of the website that are relevant to the document that you are currently viewing.
These are displayed at the side of all pages on the site as 'Related Forms' or 'Related FAQs' etc. |
4. Keyword Search |
5. Site MapThe site map provides a quick reference list of ALL the sections of the website. It can be accessed via the 'Site Map' link at the foot of every page. |
Select 'View All Services' to use the new find-as-you-type search feature.
After
selecting a category, sub-categories will be displayed on the left hand
side of the page. For example selecting 'Leisure and Culture' will give
sub categories of 'arts and entertainment' , 'countryside' etc.
