Two local authorities in Northamptonshire have adopted their own versions of the FixMyStreet Pro app for the public to reports issues with local highways.
North Northamptonshire Council and West Northamptonshire Council have deployed individual services through the app, replacing the joint one that had been in place at Northamptonshire County Council prior to their creation.
App supplier SocietyWorks said residents can use both services to report local street, highway and environment problems, such as potholes, fly tipping and blocked drains.
Report makers are kept informed on the status of their reports through an Open311 API integration with the councils’ back end systems, which are managed by their highways contractor Kier.
Existing reports are shown on the map, and potential duplicates are suggested to users within the reporting workflow. If the problem is the same, they can subscribe to the existing report instead of re-reporting.
FixMyStreet Pro is built upon the national FixMyStreet platform, and the two versions can triage reports between the two councils and to other local authorities and National Highways. Reports of abandoned vehicles will be sent to Northamptonshire Police.
Moving forward
Philip Beecroft, head of highways at North Northamptonshire, said: “The separation of the former county-wide system to provide North and West Northamptonshire each with a standalone service allows us to move forward with our customer journey in a much more efficient way and will allow our highways service provider, Kier, to expand on the existing integration between their works management system and FixMyStreet.
“This will allow us to make any necessary changes to ensure that our customers receive the best service.”
Michelle Johnson, senior business improvement officer at West Northamptonshire Council, said: “The split will allow us to manage our customer expectations in a much more streamlined approach and enables us to move into a new way of working.”
The two authority were created from the county and eight district councils in 2021.
