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How To Use This Site - Frequently Asked Questions

What is Adobe Reader and why do I need to have it installed on my machine?

PDF (Portable Document Format) files are a way of being able to display the text and graphics of the documents that we publish, whether or not the user has the original software that the document was created in. PDF files are a screenshot and read-only version of the original document. The Adobe Reader software that you need to view these documents is also free and will not make any major changes to the way your computer is set up.

You can download Adobe Reader here. Click on the link and follow the on-screen instructions to install it.

How do I search for documents the council publishes on the site?

Many Lambeth council documents can be found using this website. Documents include reports, minutes, agendas, publications, publicity, press releases and forms. Most documents are converted to PDF format, which you need Adobe Reader to access.

You can search for documents using the Site Search function at the top of each page.

When searching for documents, use one or more keywords that should appear in the title for the best results (e.g. use 'Council minutes' to get minutes from Council Committee meetings).

When the documents that match your search criteria are displayed you can either open the document or save the file to disk. To open the document click on the file name. You can open the file in a new window by right clicking on the file name and selecting Open in New Window. To save it, select 'Save Target As'.

How do I search for the services the council has to offer?

The services search box, which appears in the main navigation bar at the top of every page, can be used to display a list of all the departments of the council that deal with the service that you search for. The search box supports wildcard searching, including:

• An * (asterisk) equals zero or more alphanumeric characters. Fo example, elec* will find all documents that contain the word elec, such as "elect", "electoral", "election" and so forth.
• A ? (question mark) equals one alphanumeric character for every question mark. For example, subject? would find documents containing "subjects", "subject1", "subject2" etc

You can also use the following pages to get information about the full range of services offered by Lambeth Council.

How can I make payments online to the council?

You can pay for a number of Lambeth's services online. For more information on these payments, or if you are having problems making payments, please see the payments frequently asked questions page.

Does the site use access keys?

Yes. Access keys are keyboard shortcuts which allow the user to navigate around the website without having to use a mouse or other pointing device. To find out what access keys are used on this site, and instructions on how to use them, please see the access key page.

What happens if a page does not appear?

Try re-loading the page in your browser, you can normally do this by pressing F5 or clicking on the 'Refresh' option in your browser. If you get an 'error 404 page' the page might have been removed, had its name changed, is only accessible from our Intranet, or is temporarily unavailable. Please email the web team with details on webteam@lambeth.gov.uk with full details.

What do I do if I click on a document link and it asks me whether to open or save the document?

This normally happens if you haven't got Adobe Reader installed on your machine. You can download the Adobe Reader plug-in free here.

What do I do if I come across a link that does not seem to work?

Please report the link to the web team at webteam@lambeth.gov.uk

What do I do if I have typed in a name of a service and nothing has come up on the results page?

Try using a different search word or go to one of the other services information pages: A-Z list of services, Services directory.

You can also combine search words by using '+'. For example you could do a search on 'housing+finance'. If you still cannot find the service you require please contact the web team on webteam@lambeth.gov.uk

If you need more assistance or if there is something that you think should be included in this help guide then please email the web team on webteam@lambeth.gov.uk.

What does the Council do with personal information I enter on the website?

The council's privacy policy and web data protection charter are available to read on the bottom of every web page on this site. They will tell you how we handle your personal data and give further information on contacting the Data Protection Officer and the Information Commissioner.