Hertsmere Borough Council

• Two successful launches in under a year – a new corporate website and intranet
• WCAG 2.2 AA compliance achieved without the cost or risk of a full rebuild
• Rapid, low-disruption migration from a legacy CMS
• Budget certainty through clearly defined, fixed-scope projects
• First UK council to run both a website and intranet on Contensis for Councils

Hertsmere Borough Council has worked with Contensis for more than a decade, with both its corporate website and intranet previously running on the legacy Classic Contensis platform.

By 2024, their digital estate was showing its age. The legacy site was more than a decade old, difficult to manage, and falling short of the accessibility standards required for modern local government services.

Hertsmere’s digital presence is managed by a very small team. Only 1.5 full-time equivalent staff are responsible for the website, with no in-house delivery team to support large redevelopment projects. With ongoing budget pressures, a full bespoke rebuild was not a realistic or responsible option.

The council needed a way to modernise quickly, improve accessibility, and reduce long-term risk – without increasing workload or cost.

Hertsmere’s existing website had become outdated, non-compliant, and increasingly difficult to maintain. Mobile responsiveness and accessibility issues meant some residents were unable to fully access council information and services.

Despite previous attempts to improve the site, meeting accessibility standards was becoming increasingly challenging on the legacy platform. At the same time, the council faced the risk of falling further behind accessibility legislation while continuing to operate within tight financial and staffing constraints.

Migrating hundreds of pages of content was also seen as a significant risk. With limited internal capacity, the council needed confidence that any migration could be completed accurately and efficiently, without placing additional strain on the team.

Hertsmere adopted Contensis for Councils as a ready-to-use platform designed specifically for local government. The solution offered a clear path away from the legacy CMS while avoiding the cost, risk, and complexity of a traditional rebuild.

The corporate website project began on 14 October 2024 and launched on 10 December 2024 – a delivery timeline of just two months. The project was delivered within a fixed 25-day budget.

A programmatic migration approach was used to scrape, map, and import existing content. This ensured accuracy while avoiding months of manual effort for the council’s small digital team.

The intranet project followed, delivered within a fixed 20-day budget. Using the same migration approach, the intranet project allowed additional time for content review and improvement. This ensured the information architecture, navigation, and homepage design reflected how staff work and access information day-to-day. As a result, the intranet project began on 15 May 2025 and launched on 3 September 2025.

Because Contensis for Councils is an off-the-shelf solution, both projects launched significantly faster than a traditional bespoke build, reducing cost, risk, and internal workload.

Ease of use was a key factor in the council’s decision.

“The design, layout, and structure are much more straightforward,” said Lee Gallagher, Head of Customer Experience, Digital Transformation and Information Digital Services at the council.

This simplicity is particularly important for Hertsmere, where content management is distributed across the organisation.

The intranet now supports around 35 content editors across the council, enabling teams to share updates, promote services internally, and reuse features from the public website in a consistent way.

The new website and intranet have delivered measurable benefits for both residents and council staff:

• Accessibility compliance: Achieved WCAG 2.2 AA standards, with accessibility ratings improving from 74% to 94% after launch, increasing to 97% as of February 2026. This has made it easier for users to find what they need in an accessible format.
• Modernisation: A decade-old digital estate has been replaced with platforms designed around current user expectations, including mobile-first access.
• Efficiency: Programmatic migration significantly reduced disruption and saved months of manual work.
• Team empowerment: The council’s team can now restructure content and improve user journeys independently, without relying on specialist technical support.
• Pioneering adoption: Hertsmere became the first UK council to run both a public-facing website and intranet on Contensis for Councils.

Early website analytics also show positive trends following the migration:

• Mobile users increased from 61.6% to 66.2%, reflecting improved readability and navigation on phones
• Event count increased from 2.1 million to 2.2 million, suggesting users are engaging more with content and services, potentially due to better functionality and navigation
• Clicks reduced from 61,480 to 60,730, which indicates that users are finding what they need more quickly thanks to clearer navigation and improved search.

Councillor Renos Georgiou, Cabinet Member for Resources IT and Digital Transformation, commented:

Stef Robinson, Hertsmere's Contensis client account manager commented:

For Hertsmere, the new website and intranet aren’t seen as finished projects, but as platforms the council can continue to build on.

With a modern, API-first CMS in place, the team now has the confidence to make ongoing improvements without needing to start again or take on additional technical overhead. This includes refining user journeys as services change, expanding the intranet to better support internal communication, and introducing new tools and integrations over time.

Accessibility will remain a core consideration as the site evolves, ensuring residents and staff continue to benefit from content that is clear, usable, and inclusive.

By becoming the first council to run both its public website and intranet on Contensis for Councils, Hertsmere has shown how local authorities can modernise their digital estate in a practical, affordable way – balancing compliance, usability, and delivery speed without placing additional pressure on small internal teams.