A PARISH council has picked up an award for its website.

Great Bardfield Parish Council took home the prize for best website at the Essex Association of Local Councils Annual Awards.

The award acknowledges the role of village websites in communicating with the electorate, public and local organisations.

Great Bardfield’s site was commended for its layout, ease of use and regular updates.

The council were presented with a cheque for �300 by award sponsors, Acumen Wages Service, to go towards the cost of a new lap top.

Parish clerk Kate Fox told the Broadcast that the council was thrilled by the news.

“We were really pleased to be selected because you don’t apply for the award, the EALC look at all the websites and choose the best,” she said.

“The award was especially gratifying for the council as it had a brand new website commissioned 18 months ago.

“The old one had some information but it wasn’t very exciting and it was difficult for us to update so we started again and tried to take into account off of the things that we needed, such as meetings and a calendar of village events.

“The website is really for the whole community rather than just an update of what the parish council is doing.”