Here are some tips on how to make better use of our search facility.
Choose Words Carefully
Use specific words to describe exactly what you're looking for. More general terms give a larger number of results, so try to narrow your search.
For example:
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Try "Council Tax payments" instead of "pay bill"
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Use "planning applications" instead of "building"
Including and Excluding Words
By default, our search returns only pages that include all of your search terms. The exception is very common words such as "it" and "how." These appear in so many places, they usually won't improve your results.
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Including Words: To include words, just type a plus sign + in front of each one. For example, If you want to see pages about all benefits & grants available, with a specific interest in free school meals search for "+free +school +meals benefits"
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Excluding Words: To exclude words, type a minus sign - in front of them. No pages containing those words show up in your results. For example, if you want to see pages about animals with no mention of dogs, search for "animals -dogs".
Either/Or
If you're equally interested in two or more alternatives, use OR in capital letters. For example, search for "planning applications OR building control".
Word Order
To search for an exact phrase, just put quotation marks around two or more words. For example, search on "council tax benefit" (typing the quotation marks into the box).
Related Searches
We'll make some suggestions, too. If other people using this website have looked for something similar, links to related searches appear under the search box at the top of your web results page.