Agenda item

To receive a presentation from James Green – Service Designer – IT Services.

James Green, Service Designer – IT Services, gave a presentation regarding the “Fix My Street” application and the Council Website update. 

Fix My Street

·  The “Fix My Street” system is B&NES Council’s own customised version integrated with back-office systems and processes.

·  A large number of issues can be reported such as abandoned vehicles, littering and bins, flooding and drains and graffiti.

·  The system is easy to use and can be accessed on smartphones.  It also enables people to follow the progress of an issue that has been reported.

·  People can still report issues by calling Council Connect and staff will log the issue onto the system.

·  Over 11,000 reports have been made since the system went live in April 2018.  There are currently about 220 reports per week.

·  The link to the system is https://fix.bathnes.gov.uk/

Council Website

·  The rest of the B&NES Council website is currently being updated and improved.

·  The aim is to make the system easier to use, more accurate and more up to date.

·  There will be a different approach to content which is being designed with the user in mind.  The site will be more streamlined and is based on research following testing with users.

·  It will also be more interactive and is based on the principle used on the gov.uk website.

Questions and Comments

Concern was expressed at the length of time taken to respond to issues raised on the system.  For example, a recent report of road damage took 4-5 months to be resolved.  Cllr Paul Myers stated that this was a parish charter matter.  He noted that issues were prioritised to deal with health and safety and emergency matters in the first instance.  It was agreed that this matter would be considered at the next meeting when the relevant officer could attend to address concerns.

It was noted that the feedback part of the system was not always accurate as matters were often logged as being completed when the work had not actually been carried out.  Mandy Bishop, Director of Environment Services, stated that she would deal with this issue.  She explained that sometimes when a work request had been sent to a contractor the issue was being logged as complete and that the wording needed to be reviewed to more accurately reflect the progress being made.

It was confirmed that the team at B&NES would pass on any matters raised regarding street lights which were a Parish Council responsibility to the relevant Parish Council.

On the whole the Parish Council representatives felt that the new system was a great improvement compared to what they had before.

Cllr Karen Warrington explained that the B&NES website would be updated in a modular manner i.e. certain sections at a time.  She confirmed that any member of the public can use the Fix My Street site.  Parish Council representatives were asked to encourage the use of the system by members of their local communities as it would enable the Council to better track and monitor this work.

A copy of the presentation slides is attached as Appendix 2 to these minutes.