Back in March, Chris reported on the new smartphone app launched by our Council together with Serco to allow residents to report fly-tipping, rubbish, graffiti, problems with street furniture etc. This is a great idea, or at least, it could be, but there seems to be a problem.
I have been putting the app through its paces over the course of the last few weeks. On three separate occasions I have filed a report on some furniture that was dumped in a nearby street. On each occasion, 48 hours after submitting the report, I received automated emails from the council announcing “Your report has completed!” So far so good
… and yet the pile of rubbish remains! A link in the body of the council email takes me to a report. The title of the report gives the address outside which the furniture has been dumped, yet the report reads “EN - Enquiry Closed : Require more detail on address”; on another occasion “EN - Enquiry Closed : Nothing Found”. Come on guys! I think you can do better. The rubbish is still there today.
But it’s not all doom and gloom. A faulty streetlight was repaired within 48hrs – so perhaps there is some light at the end of the tunnel.
I've used it a few times, along with the national "fixMyStreet" app that has been around for a while. Unlike Fixmystreet, you can't update on progress (or lack of) so the app is less useful for me.
ReplyDeleteI reported a huge great hole in the pavement going down into a drain. this took at least 6 weeks from reporting to be fixed, and no obvious temporary fixes were in place, considering the danger of it.
I've never had an email from the council about it either - but progress on problems does seem to be slow even on rubbish removal. I don't expect them to sort it in a matter of hours, but I do wonder if they are picking it up much as they would on a normal round as even stuff thats not reported seems to go quite quickly.
Fair play to them for investing in the thing, but I'm not convinced the systems behind it are up to scratch, either at the council or the developers