A new Council website, built around what you need to do

Orkney Islands Council has launched a new website, the first full rebuild since the original site went live in 2001. 

Visitors accessing www.orkney.gov.uk will continue to be directed to the current website, while also being given the opportunity to explore the new site during its beta phase. A beta website is fully functional but is made available ahead of its formal launch to allow users to test its features, provide feedback and help identify any issues that may require attention before the existing site is decommissioned. The new website will become the primary www.orkney.gov.uk site from 1 October 2026. 

On the new site, residents can now enter their postcode to see their bin collection days, set up email reminders and sync collections to their phone calendar. The bin calendar was the single most requested change in a survey of website users. 

That survey found 59% of people were dissatisfied with the old site. They said information was hard to find, simple tasks took too many clicks, and too much was written in council language rather than plain English. 

The new site is organised around the tasks people come to the Council for, rather than by council department. Nearly 5,000 pages were reviewed, rewritten in plain English and restructured. The new layout was tested with residents before it was built, with almost everyone  able to do what they needed. 

Ross Cunningham, Service Manager for Policy and Communications, said: 

"This is a very exciting step forward for the Council’s ability to communicate with the public and to provide a site which is far more accessible and easier to navigate than the previous site, meaning it’s much easier for the public to find the information or services they need. 

People were very clear with us that the old website wasn't good enough. It was organised around how the Council is structuredrather than being from the perspective of the user. 

"So we started again, and we started by asking. Residents, businesses, Community Councils and visitors all gave us their time, and what they told us shaped every decision we made. The site is now built around the things people come to us for, written in the words people actually use. 

"For the next three weeks, people will still be taken to the current version of the site, with the option to start using the new site. This provides a short period where the public can provide feedback to help us identify any issues before the new site completely replaces the current site from 1 October. 

"I would very much encourage the public to start using the new site and to tell us what they think, which they can do by clicking the feedback button at the top of the homepage.. 

This has been a real team effort across the Council to get this new site ready, but I would very much like to highlight the exceptional work and efforts of our communications team." 

Other new features include self-service forms across every service area, plain English summaries on long documents, clearer alerts for severe weather and service disruption, and a dedicated section for businesses. 

The new site is at beta.orkney.gov.uk. There is a feedback link at the top of the page. The previous website stays available until the end of September, after which it will be retired.