Watford Borough Council

Translations

Watford Borough Council have staff who can verbally translate information about council services such as planning, waste & recycling, street care and cleaning, leisure and community services and benefits. We also have staff trained in British Sign Language.

Contacting the council
To speak to someone face to face, please call in to the Customer Service Centre:

Customer Service Centre, Town Hall, Watford, WD17 3EX
Monday to Friday, 8.30am – 5.30pm

You can also ring our Customer Service Centre on tel: 01923 226400, Monday to Friday 8am – 6pm.

Ask a friend for help
We are committed to providing equal access to our services to all residents. However, we recommend that you always try to find a relative or friend who can speak or read English to help you with your enquiry initially.

Verbal translations
We prefer to offer verbal, rather than written, translations as these are quicker and more cost effective. We can provide verbal translations in the following languages, Gujarati, Hindi, Punjabi, Marathi, Polish, Bengali and Urdu. We can also provide large print documents.

For any other language, we use the Language Line telephone translation service. These services are free of charge to our customers.

Learn English and ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages)
There are places in the town that offer English language lessons. Courses run throughout the year –please contact the venues below for more details. 

• The Newton Price Centre, tel: 01923 233439
• Watford Community Church, tel: 01923 331382
• Watford Women’s Centre (women only), tel: 01923 816229
• West Herts College, tel: 01923 812345
• West Watford Community Association, tel: 01923 235488
• Jobcentre Plus (refer people on benefits for free tuition), tel: 01923 208638

Free web translation services
The Watford Borough Council website can be viewed in many different languages using the free translation service provided by Google and Yahoo.

Please note these services are automated and may produce some unreliable translations. Whilst the council is happy to point people in the direction of these free web services, we can’t take any responsibility for the content of the translation.