Our website is changing
We are in the process of changing our website to make it easier to use. For a while the website will be a mixture of both old and new pages. Please bear with us during this transition period.
Our significant new features
New banner and page style
The new banner has a more up to date appearance and contains links to key elements of the website. The pages have a more attractive and consistent style which will display correctly using the most popular browsers and smartphones.
Left hand navigation
On the left is a vertical navigation trail. This uses the standard local government service categories arranged in 3 levels. You can select any level to go back to it.
Right hand navigation
On the right hand side are a series of links relevant to the page. Usually there will be a "Do it online" box containing links to appropriate forms or transactions for that service together with facilities to email the page address to a friend and report broken links. Often there will be a "Related Links" box containing links to related pages or external websites.
Accessibility
The new website has much greater compliance with standards to improve its use by visitors with disabilitities and screen reading equipment. See the Accessibility page for more details.
My Brent
From the My Brent link on the top header bar you have access to the personalisation facilities on the website.
You can log on to the Customer Portal where you can review past transactions or payments that you have made online or update your email alert preferences. In the near future you will be able to use the national Government Gateway system to see more personal data from our systems such as Council Tax or Housing Rents payments.
You can select any property in Brent to see a wide range of data relating to that property, to the street or to its neighbourhood. The system will remember the property address so that you don't have to enter this again when you next use that computer (you can clear this memory if you are using a public computer).
In the near future you will be able to save your favourite pages from the website and link back to them immediately without having to locate them again.
Interactive maps
You can choose whether to see location data using Google or Microsoft maps, enter a postcode to use Find your Nearest, view text as an alternative to the visual maps and link to more information about a particular location. Pages with geographical locations, such as a library, will have links to a map or you can go to the main Maps page.
In the near future you will be able to submit corrections to points that you think are not accurate and link to eForms to report environmental problems.
See this service in other boroughs
This link will be displayed in the "Related Links" box for those services which are supported by Local Directgov. It allows you to link directly to the relevant page on any London Borough website such as Adoption.
Translation
You can translate a page into any of the 22 languages provided by Google Translate. Simply select the Translation link from the footer bar on any page.
Rating and comments
In the near future you will be able to rate a webpage and notify us of any corrections or suggestions about it.
Technical information
If you would like to know more about underlying technical aspects of the new website you will soon be able to visit the Website Technical page.
We will be updating this page with information about new features on the website as they become available.
We welcome all comments or suggestions about the new website. You can email us at webmaster@brent.gov.uk or contribute to the New Brent Council website discussion on BRAIN.