We were pleased to discover that FixMyStreet, mySociety’s long-running reporting service for local public realm faults, has been recognised in the Newspeak House Political Technology Awards. The awards are a year-long (hypothetical) grant making exercise, undertaken by the 2024–25 Fellows of Newspeak House’s Introduction to Political Technology programme.
Newspeak House, an independent residential college founded in 2015, brings together practitioners and researchers from across civil society and the public sector to explore how technology can strengthen democratic systems.
Within this landscape, FixMyStreet stood out. The 2024-25 cohort described it as “a civic reporting tool that allows residents to flag local infrastructure issues directly to the relevant authority,” praising its ability to support real-time public participation, improve transparency, and enhance everyday engagement with place.
In their reflections, they captured something that resonates strongly with our mission:
“FixMyStreet is a classic for a reason. It’s a clean, practical tool that opens a direct line between people and local government. But what struck me was the deeper shift it invites: it makes place-based maintenance visible, collective, and reportable.”
That shift — towards shared visibility and collective responsibility for the places we live — has always been at the heart of FixMyStreet. We’re grateful to the Newspeak House cohort for recognising its continued impact within the broader ecosystem of political and civic technology.
An open, map-based solution that’s as relevant now as it ever has been
When FixMyStreet first launched in 2007 it was in response to many councils not offering an easy-to-use online reporting service — if they offered one at all. Many citizens still prefer FixMyStreet because of its simplicity and because it removes the need for them to know which council is responsible for what problem.
These days, FixMyStreet acts as a national reporting platform, bringing all of the local authorities and government organisations together on one system, triaging reports between councils at all levels, highways agencies and housing associations.
Councils and other public authorities can interact with FixMyStreet in several different ways:
- Receive reports via email (for free) to whichever email address(es) you like for different issues;
- Set up your own (free!) integration using Open311 to have reports drop into a system of your choosing;
- We can build and maintain an integration for you (carries an annual fee);
- You can become a FixMyStreet Pro user. FixMyStreet Pro is a more advanced version of FixMyStreet, designed to eliminate the significant costs councils incur from duplicate reporting, unnecessary contact and failure demand.
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Want to understand more about FixMyStreet? Contact us for a chat.