Happy birthday FixMyStreet
On Friday the 2nd of February, 2007, the very first public report was sent through FixMyStreet. It concerned a broken light on a canal footbridge in Oxford.
It’s a little-known fact that FixMyStreet was originally called Neighbourhood Fix-It. Launching the site was a good idea, but changing that name may be the next best thing we ever did.
Ten years on, the site has processed over 900,000 reports, sending them to every local authority in the UK. In doing so, it helps citizens take an active part in keeping their own local communities clean, safe and functional. Meanwhile it ensures that you, the user, never have to give a second thought to which council needs to receive which type of report.
But it’s not just a local success: FixMyStreet’s codebase has also been used to set up similar sites in more than 20 countries worldwide, from the Maldives to Malaysia and beyond.
It’s been adopted as several councils’ primary fault-reporting interface on their own websites, from Bristol to Oxfordshire and even Zürich, and we’ve worked in partnership with these authorities to develop new features that make it as useful and simple to use as possible. Watch this space, as we’ll be talking a lot more about these soon.
FixMyStreet continues to surprise even us. Thanks to its remarkable flexibility, the codebase has also been used to underpin a number of other projects, including Collideoscope, where you can report cycling collisions and near misses, and the Channel 4 tie-in, the Empty Homes Spotter. We know there will be many more to come.
So, here’s to FixMyStreet. At heart, it’s a little site that matches a pin on a map with the body that’s responsible for that location. But when you consider what it’s achieved — getting communities fixed up, making council reporting interfaces more user-friendly, empowering people to take their first steps into local participation, even challenging corruption — well, we hope you’ll see why we’re proud of how far FixMyStreet has come.
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Image: S. (CC by-sa/2.0)
It’s a good system, and if Councils (Hampshire County Council tend to ignore things Somerset takes action on), and their ‘contractors’ (Southamptons Balfour Beatty), chose to ignore it it is at least a ‘publicly accessible’ record of reported defects for legal action for failure to act, unlike the hidden embedded system Hampshire prefer people to use.
Congratulations! FixMyStreet was a great innovation back in the day and it’s no surprise it continues to be a success. Just after you launched it we built it into http://www.owl.co.uk so 100,000’s of Neighbourhood Watch members can see what’s been reported in their area and gives them a quick reminder and link to report something new. FixMyStreet really helps with the minor “quality of life” issues which turn into bigger problems if they go unreported. Happy birthday, here’s to another 10 years.
new bedford road on he corner of graham gardens always rubbish been left near post box no council bins near by. also the road leading into graham gardens on the left all cracked paving nearly 25 to thirty slabs broken uun even path difficult to walk up at night.
Hi, I’m afraid we can’t process FixMyStreet reports from here! Please go to http://www.FixMyStreet.com and input the postcode or street name. Then you’ll be able to make your report and the site will send it off to the right council to get it fixed.
Reminded me to continue reporting dangerous road surfaces on corners…where I have to negotiate crossing the road..ascending or descending the pavement…with a stick…as I have osteoporosis. it is important that I keep walking most days. Our council come and do a piecemeal repair once in a while…which does not addres the problem…often makes it worse.There is no joined up approach. Our local councillor David Walker reports generally…cannot obviously walk every road. Ridgeway…my road is a cul de sac with many corners..and covers 69 houses. Many residents are elderly…and need their walks to be as hazard free as possible. Difficult for everyone…within budgets…but surely a better solution could be found?
A brilliant service that keeps councils on their toes. I use it all the time to report problem ‘On my street’. When I do it certainly gets the council’s attention.
I wish others would use it instead of complaining that nothing gets done.