Need help using this web site?
How do I find information?
It can be hard to find a specific piece of information on a web site with hundreds of pages, especially if you don’t know where to start. To help you out, there are different ways of searching our site, depending on what you’re looking for.
If you want to find out more about using our site, go to the Website Features link at the bottom left of the page.
I know what I am looking for: A to Z
The A to Z is an alphabetical list of all the current pages on our site. Choose a letter to view all the matching titles. Alternatively, you can use the search box to look for a keyword in the page name or select one of the common searches.
The titles should give you a clear idea of what the pages are about: for example, 'Rubbish and recycling'. Some pages have a main topic and a subtitle, such as 'Housing – Private Landlord Registration'. It’s worth checking under a more general topic (like 'Housing'), as well as a more specific one to find what you want.
You’ll find the A to Z in the Site features section at the bottom of every page.
I know roughly what I want: Navigation menus
Like most web sites, our site uses tabs and menus to help you get around. Towards the top of every page you'll find a banner of coloured tabs, ranging from Business to Transport. The tabs are based on a system called the Scottish Navigation List. This list is used by many Scottish local authorities to give a common look to different council web sites.
When you select any of the tabs, various links display in the main body of the page, as well as in the left hand menu. Choose a link to show the page for that topic.
The title of the page you choose becomes highlighted in the left hand menu.
If you have a closer look at this menu, there might be more pages to view below the one you are currently looking at. You will also find a 'breadcrumb' trail of links in the top left corner that shows where you are in relation to the rest of the site: for example, 'Home – Planning – Rubbish and recycling – Household waste'. This is useful if you want to work your way back up the levels.
I’m looking for a form or report: Documents
If you are looking for forms, reports, plans and other council documents, our Document store is a good place to start. This page arranges documents under the same headings as our Navigation tabs. Select a heading to expand it and see what titles are listed.
When you choose a title, you’ll get a page with a link to the full document, plus a short description of its content and any other documents and FAQs on the same page.
If you can’t find what you want, use our general Search option or look for a web page in the A to Z that is likely to include the relevant document. The Document store appears at the bottom of every page under the Site features heading.
I have a question, but I don’t know where to start looking: FAQs
On our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) page, you can search for a question on a particular subject. It’s a handy way to find information quickly about a specific situation: for example, 'Why have you sent more than one final notice for council tax to my house?' The FAQs page has a straightforward search box where you can submit your keywords.
You then get a list of results: click on any question in the list to see the answer.
The answer page also usually shows what page(s) the FAQ is attached to, which can direct you to more information about the subject. Find the FAQs link under Site features at the bottom of every page.
I can't find what I want, or I want to search the whole site: Search
You may well be familiar with search engines like Google or Yahoo! that find information on the Web for you. Instead of searching the whole Web, our Google-powered search looks for your keywords only in the East Renfrewshire Council web site. You will get results for all types of material, including web pages, PDFs, news items and Word documents.
If you get too many results, or if the results are too general, try refining your keywords or use the A to Z or FAQs as alternatives. The search box appears in the top right corner of all our pages.