New facility provides input into decision making on regional issues
The West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) has launched an interactive chat service for people to engage with Mayor Andy Street.
The public are able to get into the chat facility through a link available on applications including Facebook Messenger. They can submit views and take part in conversations – the first of which is on homelessness in the region – to be anonymised and passed on to relevant officials and organisations.
It has been developed by Novoville, a start-up specialising in citizen engagement platforms that won the WMCA’s recent Urban Challlenge competition, which was run with tech start-up venture firm Public.
Alex Tupper from Novoville said: “This approach has worked well elsewhere in a range of other topic areas such as education, health and taxation. So it’s exciting to launch in the West Midlands and help residents engage with decision makers in an easy and responsive way.”
Street added: “We are really happy to be engaging residents through this new approach. The more people who give their views, the better we can collectively improve services.”
