Township of Alfred and Plantagenet

Introduction

The Township of Alfred and Plantagenet is a primarily Franco-Ontarian municipality located in Eastern Ontario within the United Counties of Prescott and Russell. Home to approximately 10,000 residents across seven villages, the Township serves a bilingual community with a strong emphasis on inclusion, transparency, and service excellence.

As a primary communications channel for residents, businesses, and visitors, the Township’s website needed to better support bilingual access, accessibility compliance, and ease of content management for a small internal team. The Township partnered with Upanup to deliver a full website redesign and redevelopment, resulting in a modern, bilingual, and accessible municipal website designed to meet evolving community needs.

Visit the Township of Alfred and Plantagenet ›

The Challenge

In the RFP, the Township of Alfred and Plantagenet identified several challenges with its existing website, despite a relatively recent redesign. These challenges reflected broader issues shared across the joint procurement, but were especially impactful for a bilingual municipality with limited internal technical resources.

Key challenges included:

Ongoing accessibility compliance gaps, particularly against WCAG Level AA requirements
Persistent language and bilingual usability issues, limiting equitable access for English- and French-speaking users
A platform that lacked the flexibility and structure needed to organize and present a growing volume of municipal content
Difficulty maintaining and updating the site efficiently with a small staff team
The need for more responsive, reliable technical support and training

The Township sought a long-term partner who could deliver not only a modern website, but also a solution that would remain sustainable, accessible, and easy to manage over time.

English homepage screenshot showing off unique banner and colours

The Solution

Upanup worked closely with the Township of Alfred and Plantagenet as part of the broader multi-municipality initiative, delivering a custom website solution tailored to the Township’s specific needs, branding, and bilingual requirements.

What we delivered:

Full website redesign and redevelopment
A custom bilingual website, with parallel English and French content and clear language-switching at the page level
Accessibility-first design and development aligned with WCAG Level AA standards
A modern, responsive design optimized for desktop, tablet, and mobile devices
Improved information architecture to make municipal services and programs easier to find
A user-friendly CMS designed for non-technical staff, with role-based permissions and content workflows
Canadian-based hosting with independent infrastructure to support performance, security, and data sovereignty
Training and documentation to support long-term sustainability and staff confidence

The result is a website that balances modern design with practical functionality — supporting both community access and internal operations.

Screenshots of mobile views of the website

Screenshot of new mobile first menu approach showing vertically along the right side bar

The Results

The Township of Alfred and Plantagenet launched a bilingual, accessible website that better reflects its values of inclusion, transparency, and service excellence.

Key outcomes include:

Improved accessibility and compliance, reducing barriers for users with disabilities
A clearer, more intuitive experience for both English- and French-speaking audiences
Easier content management for Township staff, reducing reliance on external technical support
A scalable platform designed to evolve alongside future e-government initiatives

The new website provides a stronger digital foundation for how the Township communicates, delivers services, and engages with its community.

Visit the Township of Alfred and Plantagenet ›