FIX MY STREET

We all complain about people dumping their rubbish on the pavement, faulty street lamps or anything else which makes our environment unpleasant. Did you know that you could report these to the Council? It’s quick and easy, as Handsworth Halping Hands shows us below:

All about the ‘FixMyStreet’ website (https://www.fixmystreet.com/):

1. You can use FixMyStreet to report street problems like fly-tipping, missed rubbish and recycling collections, potholes, broken streetlights or dangerous paving or street furniture, anywhere the UK.
2. All you have to do is mark where the problem is on a map, add a short description, and send it off. You don’t need to know who’s responsible for fixing the problem the website automatically sends it to the right place.
3. Your report is also displayed on the FixMyStreet website, so that others can comment or leave advice.
4. The council replies directly back to you, and is responsible for doing the actual fixing.
5. If you put your postcode in on the homepage, you can see all the problems that have recently been reported in your own area great for tracking what the biggest concerns are in your own community.
6. Over 50% of FixMyStreet users say that they’ve never reported anything to the council before, so it’s a great gateway towards civic engagement.
7. The site has been used to make over 500,000 reports (as of November 2014) since it was launched in 2007.
8. The code that runs the site is ‘Open Source’, so it can be used or modified by anyone who wants to run a similar site. There are FixMyStreet sites all over the world, including in Norway, Chile, Australia and Malaysia.
9. The code has also been adapted for other purposes, for example, reporting shortages of TB vaccines in Indian clinics; reporting empty homes to councils, and reporting bike accidents across the UK.
10. Several UK councils (and one in Switzerland) have bought a white label version of FixMyStreet to use as their main reporting mechanism on the council website.

Need any more facts or figures? Just drop a line to press@mysociety.org and they’ll be happy to help.

Here’s another user-friendly site for drawing attention to anti-social behaviour in your area, in this case dangerous and stupid driving and parking – typically speeding through our residential streets and parking across pavements to the inconvenience of push chair users and others. Unlike FixMyStreet you are not reporting in the hope of action, just making public on the internet that a particular individual’s behaviour is stupid and dangerous. If others have also encountered similar behaviour from the same registration then the data accumulates. The police check this site. http://rate-driver.co.uk

With thanks to Handsworth Helping Hands