VCS Websites

As I am a Parish Councillor that is responsible for the maintenance of the Parish Council Website I was well aware of the closing of EssexInfo.net. Also as a hobby web designer I saw that this was a fantastic business opportunity. Having used EssexInfo as it was a "supposed" no-cost option I did some reaserch into finding a UK hosting service. As I had been running my own website since 2003 I was frustrated by the EssexInfo interface and had a hankering to "do it myself". The closing of EssexInfo gave me that option.

After setting up the EssexInfo site I transferred my site from a Canadian host to a UK one for my personal website. The design and administration of your own website in NOT DIFFICULT. This led me to thinking that I could show others how to do so as well.

Hugh Frostick

Hugh is also a Parish Councillor from Colchester, Essex so there was no wonder why he saw the opportunity as well. Hugh has been in the business of Web design for 20 years, both here and in New Zealand. He is a "Drupal" solution provider.

I have never used Drupal but from what I can see there does not seem to be any more reason to do so than to use and reccomend Wordpress. Looking at some of Hugh's html is an indcation to me that there is a similar over complication that seems to be par for the course when you use a CMS.

The VCS approach to Responsive Design differs from mine but I agree with them on a number of points but I think that the "Drupal" approach is over-kill.

VCS and Responsive Design:

A question from Hugh's faq:

Can we have a vertical menu down the side? We have loads and loads of of items!

and Hugh's answer:

No, as this is not the modern way. Quite often we find the reason for having lots of items is that your information is not well structured. We can advise and help make if fit logically.

As for "the modern way" I disagree. More of a question that a vertical menu does not play well with responsive design and an un-structured design is nothing to do with a side menu. I do agree that menu design should be logical and should not have too many options in one place.

Do I recommend this solution?

Frankly I would not recommend this solution. I think that Hugh has bitten off more than he can chew and the price is too cheap for what he is promising. I find what he is proposing is far from simple. The "hidden" costs and the potential on-going running cost seem to be a little vague. The "Starter" and "Standard" packages are detailed in his email to the Parish Council clerks. I can't really see the point of the "Starter" package as it is not compliant with Transparency requirements. There are too many offerings for the price in the "Standard" package.

In my opinion if you opt for the "standard" package then you will soon be in the situation where you will require extra assistance, for which Hugh clearly spells out, for which you will have to pay for. In my opinion you are far better off developing your own expertise to allow you do upload content yourself on as-needed basis.

A review of the main VCS website

Personally I don't like this design. I understand that Hugh wants to present a "modern" design, however he also says that he is "Old School" and I think that this demands a top, bottom or side menu. Hugh says that CVS have made "a quick refresh for 2019", I don't think that this works. Sure RWD is showcased but I think that he could do better, and probably can.

A review of the VCS Parish Council website

My first observation is the use of .uk domain - this is the same as my decision about our Parish Council domain but not mentioned by Hugh on his websites. The options he offers are .co.uk and .org.uk and .gov.uk, the last he correctly says is problematic.

Here I think that the mobile rendition of the site is better than the desktop/laptop rendition. I think that my implementation of RWD is better in that the screen layout is very different between mobile and computer.

The colours on the mobile rendering make the "navigation" drop down difficult to see. However, I like(d) the way that he has implemented it???. The use of a dropdown list, a form element, for navigation is questionable (IMO). My only fear is that his RWD is too closely tied to Drupal's RWD solution.

What I wanted to do

I also see the need for a simple solution for a Parish Council website. Having performed research into this topic and calling on my past experience I am now convinced that solutions from 3rd party providers is not required. If you have specfic needs, then maybe, but a simple website is very easy to construct.

Accessibilty

Now that VCS have updated their pricing, for a 5 seat PC the cost is £150 setup and £150 p.a., there is a "News" item on Accessibilty

It seems that a Parish Clerk was concerned in this regard. You do not need to be "Accessible" to be compliant with your Parish Coucil requirement, however, it would be good that you are. If you wish to see an approach to providing accessibilty take a look at the Braintree District Council website. It seems to me that the major issue here is with making your website easy to use, text size and contrast etc. If you take a look at the W3C guidelines, see link above, I defy you to make much sense of them!.

Update: October 2020

Now that a few Parish Councils have signed up with VCS there is still the question of WCAG Compliance. I can't really see why this is such a big thing with respect to a Parish Council website. VCS are still using this as a USP.

On performing more research it is intresting to note that Hugh is a resident of Great Bromley but they decided to go with the Voice for their website. The "converted" essexinfo website has a menu on the left with lots of items!

Also, the Parish Council demo has changed dramtically since my initial review and now looks pretty similar to all the other VCS websites (apart from staybehinds.com). My comment about the use of a dropdownlist (a form element) for navigation is no longer valid.