Council website translated for Poles

The district council has launched the website to serve the needs of its 737 Polish people and the many more migrant workers who come to the area for seasonal work in the summer.

Polish people make up 0.63 per cent of the district's 116,300 population - the second largest ethnic minority group after the gypsy and travelling community. Staff believe the website will provide them with important information in their own language and, ultimately, help them to integrate with the local community.

The council also hopes it will have the added benefit of reducing time that staff spend answering queries at contact centres by enabling people to access information directly.

The website was translated by Polish-born Natalia Zak, a customer service adviser at Wychavon District Council.

She said: "It's been great working on this innovative and new project to help Polish people get important information easily. It will also reduce the time spent dealing with enquiries at the contact centres because so much information is now readily available on the website.

"We will continue to develop the website and welcome any input from members of the Polish community."

Amanda de Warr, Wychavon District Council's customer services manager, said: "We want to make Polish residents and migrant workers feel as welcome as possible to the area and know that English isn't always their first language.

"It's really important that Polish people have access to information in their own language, to help them integrate and be aware of any cultural differences."

She said that the website encouraged Polish people to speak English by providing signposts to local colleges where they could learn English.

The shortened site - www.wychavon.gov.uk/polska - includes the most important information from the council's main website and it was created using in-house resources, which included three days of translation time and web developing.