Public Access services for planning, building control and licensing applications will be unavailable 27 and 28 April due to essential maintenance.

This accessibility statement applies to content published on the sub domain beta.southglos.gov.uk. It does not apply to content published on www.southglos.gov.uk, for which a separate accessibility statement is available.

This beta website (beta.southglos.gov.uk) is run by South Gloucestershire Council. We are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of technology or ability.

How accessible this website is

On this website you can:

  • change colours, contrast levels and fonts using your browser or device
  • zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen using your browser or device
  • 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 (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)

We have 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.

Parts of this website that are not fully accessible

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

  • you cannot modify the line height or spacing of text
  • most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
  • some of our online forms are difficult to navigate using just a keyboard or using mobile devices

What to do if you cannot access parts of this website

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

We will consider your request and get back to you in 10 working days.

For speakers of other languages, information on our pages can be translated using Google Translate.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We are always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems that are not listed on this page, or think we are not meeting accessibility requirements, you can contact us using the ‘Contact – make an enquiry’ form on this page.

Contact us by phone or in person

We provide a text relay service for people who are deaf, hearing impaired or have a speech impediment.

Our offices have audio induction loops. We can arrange a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter if you let us know when you want to visit us.

Find out how to contact us.

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 are not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

We are committed to making this 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 2.1 AA standard and the non-compliances are listed below.

Non accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Some PDF documents do not comply with WCAG 2.1. We are working to ensure that all future PDF documents are compliant.

Content that is not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

Non-HTML documents

Some PDF documents do not comply with WCAG 2.1. We are working to ensure that all future PDF documents are compliant.

WCAG 2.4.7 Focus visible

Some legacy online forms (e.g. report an abandoned vehicle) do not have visible tab focus on the radio buttons or ‘Next’ and ‘Close’ buttons. These legacy forms are being replaced as part of an ongoing programme of work and it would be a disproportionate burden to replace them immediately.

WCAG 1.4.4 Resize text

Some legacy online forms (e.g. report an abandoned vehicle) have zoom and scaling disabled on mobile devices by use of the meta name viewport element. These legacy forms are being replaced as part of an ongoing programme of work and it would be a disproportionate burden to replace them immediately.

WCAG 1.4.3 Contrast minimum

Colours use in the headers of some of our legacy online forms (e.g. Report an abandoned vehicle) do not have sufficient colour contrast against the background. These legacy forms are being replaced as part of an ongoing programme of work and it would be a disproportionate burden to replace them immediately.

PDFs and other documents

Many of our older PDFs and Word documents do not meet accessibility standards – for example, they may not be structured so they are accessible to a screen reader. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role value).

The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they are not essential to providing our services.

Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.

Live video

Live video streams do not have captions. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.4 (captions – live).

We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.

How we tested this website

We used the following tools to help test this website:

It was last tested on 24 May 2023 by our user-centred design team.

What we are doing to improve accessibility

We are actively working to increase the accessibility and usability of this website. We are preparing an accessibility roadmap that will be published on this page. The roadmap will set out how and when we plan to solve any accessibility issues identified.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 23 August 2019. It was last reviewed 24 May 2023.

Beta This is our beta website