Potholes, broken street lights, abandoned vehicles,
graffiti and dumped rubbish in East Sussex are all being dealt with
more quickly after six of the county’s seven councils deployed a
shared system for members of the public to report
problems.
People who spot problems can access the system from any of the
councils’ websites, or via a separate website. The application
includes a geographical information system (GIS) that enables
people to pinpoint the location of the problem.
Council officers can also use the tool to report any problems
they spot while on duty. The Access East Sussex project said, “Now
it is fully implemented, there are high levels of usage and high
numbers of repeat reporters – people who report faults regularly.
We also encourage street wardens to make use of the system for
anything they observed on their normal rounds.”
The project has made the councils’ highways and maintenance
departments more efficient because the system automatically
allocates reported street problems to the council responsible.
Before the system was introduced, people often reported faults
to the wrong council, and then became frustrated that reported
problems were not dealt with.
Now if people are not sure which council has responsibility for
a particular street, the problem will still be allocated to the
right council, regardless of which website they use to report the
problem.
The project is one of the fruits of a partnership between East
Sussex County Council, Eastbourne Borough Council, Hastings Borough
Council, Lewes District Council, Rother District Council and
Wealdon District Council.
People can also use the websites of Sussex Police and East
Sussex Fire and Rescue Service to report problems. The police force
is included in the project because only it has the legal power to
remove abandoned vehicles.
The shared system cost £135,000 to set up. The only local
authority in the county not using it is Brighton & Hove City
Council.
Vote for your IT greats
Who have been the most influential people in IT in the past 40
years? The greatest organisations? The best hardware and software
technologies? As part of Computer Weekly’s 40th anniversary
celebrations, we are asking our readers who and what has really
made a difference?
Vote now at:
www.computerweekly.com/ITgreats