A COUNTY parish council is reaching out to its residents in an interactive new website – and hopes it could help with recruiting more councillors.

Mark Millmore, chairman of Holmer Parish Council, has spent several months working on a new website – a WordPress site – which went live just over a month ago.

He hopes it will encourage better communication between the council and its parishioners, taking on key topics such as large planning applications and bringing them to people in a less complicated format.

"It is a fantastic way of communicating with people," said Councillor Millmore.

"Parish councils are the voice of the people that live in that parish and getting more people involved is a good thing for democracy."

With more and more planning applications popping up around the county – Holmer itself is facing a proposal for 460 new homes – the new website boasts an effective interactive planning section.

Residents can clearly see on a Google map where plans have been submitted and can also follow links to make representations on Herefordshire Council's website.

Other features of the website include a comments section where residents can write about any issues affecting them, local news and minutes from meetings.

And Cllr Millmore hopes the new interactive website will lead the way for other parish councils across the county.

He is also urging residents to become members of the council in order to represent the interests of the different districts – especially in relation to the allocation of Section 106 money which is used to improve the living standards of residents.

"There are lots of reasons for people to come to meetings. We need to be made aware of things happening across the parish – it'd be impossible for us to know everything that is going on," said Cllr Millmore.

"We'd ideally like to have two people from each district. There are currently five members on the parish council but the maximum is nine and we'd love to fill it with members from each part of the parish and from each age group."

Visit holmershelwick.co.uk/ to take a look at the new website or to get in touch with the parish council.