Accessibility Statement

Using this website

This website is run by Houghton Regis Town Council. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:

change colours, contrast levels and fonts using your browser or device settings
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

We’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

How accessible this website is?

We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:

some PDFs and Word documents published before September 2018 are not accessible to screen readers
some images may be missing alternative text
some pages have headings that are not fully structured for assistive technologies
some interactive forms are not yet fully accessible by keyboard

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille, please contact us:

Email: info@houghtonregis-tc.gov.uk
Telephone: 01582 708540
Write to: Houghton Regis Town Council, Council Offices, Peel Street, Houghton Regis, Beds, LU5 5EY

We’ll consider your request and get back to you within 10 working days.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, please contact: info@houghtonregis-tc.gov.uk.

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 (the ‘accessibility regulations’).
If you’re not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Houghton Regis Town 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 website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

Non-accessible content

The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons:

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Some images are missing alternative text. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.1.1 (Non-text Content). We are working through all images to add alt text.
Some PDF documents are not fully accessible. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 4.1.2 (Name, Role, Value). We are reviewing all essential PDFs and replacing them with accessible versions where possible.

Disproportionate burden

Some historic documents published before September 2018 are not fully accessible. We do not plan to fix these as the regulations exempt pre-2018 documents that are not essential for providing services.

Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

Live video streams are exempt from meeting accessibility regulations.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We are:

training staff on creating accessible content
replacing or updating PDFs with accessible versions where possible
running quarterly accessibility checks on the site
ensuring new pages and content published meet WCAG 2.2 AA standards

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 9 September 2025. It was last reviewed on 27th October 2025 by Houghton Regis Town Council.

This website was last tested in August 2025. The test was carried out by an external organisation; a sample of pages across the site, including the homepage, news posts, council minutes and event pages were tested to reflect the range of content and functionality.