Blog posts about FixMyStreet Pro

A new feature has been released for FixMyStreet giving users the option to start their reports with a photo, the data from which can be extracted to speed up the reporting process.

As well as making the reporting process quicker, this new functionality should also increase the accuracy of reports, removing the need for users who can’t or don’t want to report the problem at its location to remember exactly where it was at a later point in time.

Where a photo has been taken using a smartphone with geo-tagging enabled, FixMyStreet can now use the data stored in the uploaded photo to identify the location of the problem the user wants to report. 

Once uploaded, FixMyStreet will display a map with a pin dropped at the location identified. Users then have the option to either move the map pin if necessary, or continue with the report.

If a user does not have photo geo-tagging turned on, or the device they are using is not compatible with this functionality, they can still begin reports with a photo, but they will also need to identify the location of the problem either through GPS (if currently at the location) or using a postcode, street name or area.

Users can still report problems on FixMyStreet without using a photo if they can’t take one or don’t have one.

Photo-first reporting has been rolled out across the FixMyStreet website and app, as well as to all cobranded instances of FixMyStreet Pro.

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Got a question about photo-first reporting on FixMyStreet? Get in touch.

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. 

Aberdeenshire Council is the latest local authority to switch to a fully integrated version of FixMyStreet Pro for managing street, highway and environment fault reports from members of the public.

A brand new, customised FixMyStreet Pro service has been launched by SocietyWorks for Aberdeenshire Council to create a better and more efficient reporting experience. 

Designed as a progressive web app, FixMyStreet Pro enables Aberdeenshire to offer a digital service accessible from any device, either as a web page or downloaded to a home screen as an app, and includes offline reporting functionality. 

The initial launch includes an API integration into the Council’s existing asset management system Confirm, enabling report data and updates to be shared to and from report-makers automatically. This integration also enables assets such as bridges, drains and streetlights to be displayed on the map for increased report accuracy. 

The launch also includes an integration between FixMyStreet Pro and mygov.scot, giving residents and council staff the ability to log in to Abderseenshire’s FixMyStreet Pro service using existing council credentials.

To help Aberdeenshire Council reduce duplication and increase transparency, FixMyStreet Pro displays all reports on the map and suggests potential duplicates to users at the point of making a report, with an option to subscribe to the existing report.

Additionally, the service has been connected with the Scottish Road Works Register to display scheduled roadworks and utility works on the map, aiming to eliminate unnecessary contact.

Meanwhile, should a user attempt to report a problem outside of Aberdeenshire’s boundary, the service will divert the report to the correct authority via the national FixMyStreet service, run by SocietyWorks’ parent charity mySociety. 

Bill Lennox, Roads Manager at Aberdeenshire Council, said:

“Aberdeenshire Council recognised a need to improve the customer experience when they contacted us about road related issues. The historic system developed in house had limited functionality and poor integration with our asset management system. For residents, this made the process of notifying us of defects and being updated on progress unsatisfactory.

“We have been working with SocietyWorks to introduce FixMyStreet Pro. This system will integrate with the Council’s website and app to provide a much more streamlined experience for customers. The improvements will mean that customers have greater sight of issues in their area, they will be kept up to date on progress, and they will be provided with more relevant information about the topic they have raised.

“From a maintenance perspective we expect far fewer duplicate enquiries from customers and fewer requests for updates on repair progress. All of this will be delivered by close integration with our asset management system, which means staff will not be required to undertake any additional tasks as part of their day to day working.”

Angela Dixon, Managing Director at SocietyWorks, said:

“When it comes to providing public-facing reporting services for local problems, councils and highways authorities need technology that enables them to work together while keeping citizens at the front and centre.

“As a small social enterprise owned by a charity, it is wonderful to have Aberdeenshire Council’s trust in transforming its highways service provision through our FixMyStreet Pro solution.

“This launch is the first of its kind in Scotland, with Dumfries and Galloway also in development, and represents a new chapter in FixMyStreet Pro’s history. I look forward to following Aberdeenshire’s progress with the new service and adding their influence to FixMyStreet Pro’s future.”

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Find out more about FixMyStreet Pro.

Gloucester City Council has chosen FixMyStreet Pro as its new online reporting service for local street and environment issues as part of a drive to streamline the reporting process, improve response times and enhance communication with residents and other local authorities.

SocietyWorks is delighted to have launched a brand new installation of its FixMyStreet Pro solution for Gloucester City Council.

Opting for the customised plan for District Councils, which ensures the solution is value appropriate, Gloucester City Council’s installation is branded to complement the Council’s existing online environment and designed to work seamlessly on any device.

The launch includes an API integration between FixMyStreet Pro and the Causeway Alloy asset management system, used by Ubico, the environmental services company part-owned by Gloucester City Council.

Reports of problems managed by Ubico are sent directly into Alloy, and updates are automatically sent back to report-makers, and to anyone else subscribed to the report, helping to manage expectations, improve perceptions and eliminate expensive follow-up contact.

Reports of problems not exclusively managed by Ubico are sent directly to the most relevant team within the Council for action.

Report-makers can locate problems using GPS or by inputting a postcode or street name. Asset layers shared from Alloy are displayed on the FixMyStreet Pro map to encourage accurate selections when reporting problems relating to, for example, bridges or street lights.

All reports sent to Gloucester City Council are displayed publicly on the FixMyStreet Pro map to improve transparency. Where an issue within the same category and location has already been reported, FixMyStreet Pro suggests the existing report to the report-maker and, if it is the same problem, encourages them to subscribe instead of reporting again. 

Categories for issues that are the responsibility of Gloucestershire County Council are also available for report-makers to select via the service. Reports within these categories are automatically diverted to Gloucestershire, which has its own installation of FixMyStreet Pro.

In instances of crossover, where some assets are managed by Gloucester City Council and others are managed by Gloucestershire County Council, FixMyStreet Pro ensures that reports always go to the correct authority. 

Meanwhile, where motorways and trunk roads, like the A38 and the M5, pass through or alongside Gloucester City Council and Gloucestershire County Council’s boundaries, FixMyStreet Pro automatically diverts reports to National Highways.

Should a user attempt to make a report of a problem that is the responsibility of another authority, the service will redirect them to the national FixMyStreet site, run by SocietyWorks’ parent charity mySociety.

Angela Dixon, Managing Director at SocietyWorks, said: “FixMyStreet Pro exists to make reporting local place-based problems online easy for members of the public, and for the authorities responsible for them.

“The launch of FixMyStreet Pro for Gloucester City Council unifies the reporting process between the district and county authorities, enabling each to offer residents who make the effort to report problems as smooth and responsive a service as possible.

“It has been wonderful to work with the team at Gloucester City Council and Causeway on this launch, and I look forward to welcoming Gloucester City into our lively user groups, where they will help us to shape the future of the solution.” 

Among FixMyStreet Pro’s key benefits is its ability to allow councils and other public authorities to incorporate into each installation fault reporting for multiple service areas, flexing around individual needs and creating a consistent reporting experience for users. 

An example of this is the way in which some councils using FixMyStreet Pro have chosen to enable reporting of housing-related issues via their instances of the service to help reduce misreporting and failure demand.

Meanwhile, housing associations themselves can also use the technology as their own, running a reporting service that works in synchronisation with neighbouring councils, triaging reports between them.

As is often the case with FixMyStreet Pro, this functionality can work in different ways, depending on an authority’s individual processes and relationships with housing associations and contractors.

Internal triaging 

Where housing estates are managed by a particular team within the council that is different from the team which set up its FixMyStreet Pro service, reports can be triaged to that team using an asset layer, if the data is available.

Take Brent Council’s FixMyStreet Pro as an example, which enables users to select ‘Council Estate Grounds’ as a category, and then displays on the map an asset layer to make clear where such issues can be reported. 

 

 

Should a user make a report within this category, with the map pin placed over the layer, the report will go to Brent’s dedicated estates team directly. As well as helping the council triage reports, this also helps to educate report-makers on who’s responsible for what.

It is also possible to do this without displaying the asset layer, if you would prefer. In these cases, upon selecting a particular report category and dropping the map pin in a certain place, the report will be triaged accordingly, but without the user knowing this is what is happening.  

Signposting

Where it is not possible to directly triage a report to another system or team, FixMyStreet Pro makes it easy to signpost users to the correct place to make their report. 

In such instances, councils can display a message to the user explaining why their report can’t be made via FixMyStreet Pro and where to make it instead. 

 

 

Messages can be displayed at various points within the reporting workflow, based on either an asset layer (if available), the location of the map pin or the category or subcategory selected. 

 

 

Housing associations using FixMyStreet Pro

As well as enabling councils to incorporate housing-related reports into their services, FixMyStreet Pro can also be used by said housing associations directly, acting as their own reporting service.

The Peabody Housing Association uses FixMyStreet Pro to manage fault reports within Thamesmead, making it easy for local people to report environmental issues such as fly-tipping, pest control, public lighting and problems in or around the canals and lakes — all managed by Peabody.

 

 

FixMyStreet Pro’s ability to triage reports nationally means housing associations benefit from being able to manage reports for issues that are their responsibility, while all other reports are automatically triaged to the correct authority. 

With Peabody and its two closest borough councils, Bexley and Greenwich, as well as Transport for London, all using FixMyStreet Pro, the four bodies can work in synchronisation, making it easy for residents to successfully report problems and care for their local community.

 

 

For example, in the areas of Thamesmead which sit within the boundary of Greenwich, housing-related issues which are the responsibility of Peabody Housing Association are automatically triaged from the Royal Borough of Greenwich’s FixMyStreet Pro service. The report will not enter Greenwich’s workflow, instead going directly to the correct team at Peabody for response, with no interruption to the workflow for the report-maker.

 

Categories for caretakers

Additionally, in using the technology for themselves, housing associations can allow their caretakers to use the service to report issues via the same, simple user interface, just like Peabody have done. 

“Caretakers can now make and monitor their reports at the touch of a button, taking ownership of when reports can be closed, or when others need to be chased”

 

 

Tom Broad, Head of Environmental Services at Peabody, explains more:

“Just as we had done for residents, we wanted to make it easier for our team of 80+ caretakers that look after the 5,000+ homes in Thamesmead to be able to report the defects they find without having to go via the call centre.

“Working with the team at SocietyWorks, we explored how we could use FixMyStreet Pro to give caretakers a quick and simple way to make reports online, and to stay updated on their progress. The result was to incorporate into the existing service some new, private categories and block asset layers, only visible to caretaker staff when logged in to our FixMyStreet Pro service. Like residents, caretakers can upload photos of the issue and provide as much detail as possible within their reports.

“It’s been a real success; caretakers can now make and monitor their reports at the touch of a button, taking ownership of when reports can be closed, or when others need to be chased. With all reports visible on the map, this new functionality has helped us to plug knowledge gaps whenever a member of staff is off sick or on annual leave, making sure reports are not duplicated and updates accessible to everyone.”

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For more information about FixMyStreet Pro, please send a message to our team.

We have introduced a new feature to the admin interface of FixMyStreet Pro, enabling members of staff with the correct permissions to set a “closed to updates” timeframe to reports on a per-category basis.

The purpose of this is to prevent users providing updates on old reports to alert to a new occurrence of the same issue, which could impede resolutions and may impact your report data when analysed.

The setting can be applied to any subcategory as needed. This allows you to automate the closing of reports to updates for individual problems within a category sooner or later than others. 

 

 

For example, if a problem is something you know is likely to reoccur in the same area, such as fly-tipping in a known hotspot, you may want to set a shorter timeframe within which updates can be applied to an existing report.

That way, when a new instance of the issue occurs, you can help to ensure a new report is made instead of a user updating an existing report because they haven’t realised it’s not the same problem. 

 

 

If no individual timeframe is applied to a subcategory, reports will be closed to updates within the default timeframe of six months, unless you have requested an alternative default timeframe to be applied to your instance of FixMyStreet Pro.

This feature complements FixMyStreet Pro’s duplicate report suggestion tool, which suggests existing reports to users within the same category and location, the radius for which can be modified per category. 

Why updates are important 

Updates to reports on FixMyStreet Pro come in a number of different formats:

1. The authority that received the report can update it to share what’s happening next;
2. The report-maker can update the report to say, for example, that a problem has become worse since they reported it;
3. Other members of the public can update the report to add their own information, such as to say that an instance of fly-tipping is perhaps no longer there.

Timely updates from the authority are the best, most effective way to keep feedback loops closed and mitigate follow-up calls or emails. Updates are made easy by using response templates, which enable pre-written responses to be sent to report-makers according to the status of the report. 

 

 

Meanwhile, having the option to keep reports of unfixed problems open to updates from members of the public for a while can help you to monitor a problem’s priority without needing to carry out continuous inspections. 

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If you’re a client of FixMyStreet Pro and you would like any support using this new feature, please open a ticket on the helpdesk.

If you’re from a local authority or other public body not yet using FixMyStreet Pro and you’d like to understand more about how it works, please get in touch. 

Sudden spikes in demand from members of the public reporting local street, highway and environment issues can be caused by a number of things. 

Some causes are fairly predictable, like those associated with seasonal changes such as grass cutting or empty grit bins, while others happen more suddenly in the wake of unexpected incidents like flooding or community campaigns against issues like graffiti or fly-tipping.

That being the case, we’ve equipped FixMyStreet Pro, our fault reporting service for councils, highways agencies and other public bodies, with several useful tools to help manage sudden increases in reports.

Let’s take a look at some of them…

 

Site-wide messaging 

From the FixMyStreet Pro administration dashboard, staff users with the correct permissions can set messaging to be displayed across their installation of the service. 

Using this feature, you can let report-makers know that you are receiving a high volume of reports of a particular issue and explain how this may affect response times.

You can also use the site-wide messaging feature to provide emergency contact details for certain problems if necessary, or schedule messages to only appear at certain times, such as out of hours.

 

Response templates 

FixMyStreet Pro sends a response to report-makers whenever a report’s status changes to ensure they and anyone subscribed to the report is kept informed of its progress. 

With all reports and their responses published publicly on the map, the information you include in them serves as a crucial way to manage expectations and educate about how issues are prioritised. 

Templates for responding to reports within different categories can be set up and edited by staff users. 

When report volume is high for a particular category, you can edit its templates or even create new ones specifically to communicate that responses may take longer than usual.

Templates can be managed from within the FixMyStreet Pro administration dashboard or they can correspond to an integrated asset management or CRM system.

 

Extra questions and photos

Photos and extra questions can be included within the FixMyStreet Pro report form to help users understand before they make a report whether the problem they have found meets your intervention criteria.

This can be helpful for issues like blocked drains, which may regularly see predictable increases in reports after heavy rainfall.

 

Emergency report diversion

During periods of high demand, it’s crucial that emergencies don’t get lost in a queue of other less urgent problems. 

In addition to using the site-wide messaging and extra questions mentioned above, it’s also possible to display emergency messaging for certain report categories on FixMyStreet Pro, or even disable those reports entirely.

 

Avoiding duplicates

It can often be the case that members of the public go to report an issue about which you’re already aware, so when demand is already high, keeping duplication down is paramount. 

As well as suggesting possible duplicates within a customisable radius to report-makers and encouraging them to subscribe instead of re-reporting, FixMyStreet Pro also enables you to display on the map scheduled maintenance works to eliminate the need for reports to be made at all.

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For more information about how FixMyStreet Pro works, request a demo from our friendly team.

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A new API integration has been completed between Buckinghamshire Council’s instance of FixMyStreet Pro and the Idox Geospatial Countryside Asset Management System (CAMS), used by the council to manage its public rights of way data. 

This integration enables report categories for problems relating to public rights of way, such as broken gates and missing signposts, to be introduced into FixMyStreet Pro for Buckinghamshire. 

“The integration will provide greater visibility of existing reports, reduce duplicate reports and improve accuracy of reporting through map based assets.”

– Cameron Barrett, FixMyStreet Product Manager at Buckinghamshire Council 

Such reports, including any images uploaded by the report-maker, are sent directly into CAMS to be responded to by the appropriate teams. 

Updates made to reports by council staff within CAMS are returned to FixMyStreet Pro, with details shared automatically via email to the report-maker and any subscribers.

Response templates managed by staff within the FixMyStreet Pro administration dashboard correspond to different status updates within CAMS, making it easy to respond to reports in user-friendly language, helping to manage expectations and keep the feedback loop closed.

The CAMS integration is one of several with Buckinghamshire’s FixMyStreet Pro, which was implemented in 2018. Existing integrations include the Causeway Alloy asset management system for highways reports, the Abavus My Council Services (MCS) CRM system for street cleaning and other environment reports and EvoClaim, the solution used by the council to manage claims from residents for injury or damage sustained to vehicles or property on a highway.

Cameron Barrett, FixMyStreet Product Manager at Buckinghamshire Council said:

“FixMyStreet Pro has been Buckinghamshire Highways’ online reporting tool since 2018. We have continued to develop FixMyStreet by integrating with our Street Scene operations as well as Parks. 

“Rights of way presented an opportunity for integration identified through high volumes of Rights of way enquiries that were being submitted via “Best fit” categories on FixMyStreet and subsequently being closed and internally redirected. 

“The integration will provide greater visibility of existing reports, reduce duplicate reports and improve accuracy of reporting through map based assets. 

“The team at SocietyWorks and Idox have been fantastic in supporting this project and prioritising customer needs throughout.”

Angela Dixon, Managing Director at SocietyWorks, said:

“The delivery of modern public services requires a unified approach. It has been a pleasure to support Buckinghamshire Council with another integration into their co-branded version of FixMyStreet Pro. 

“I would like to thank everyone involved in this project at Buckinghamshire, Idox Geospatial and here at SocietyWorks for their dedication to delivering interoperable services that help councils bridge data gaps and improve the user experiences of members of the public.”

David Bennett, CAMS Consultant, Idox Geospatial said:

“This integration makes it easier for residents to report public rights of way issues and helps the Council respond more efficiently. 

“We’re proud to have worked with Buckinghamshire and SocietyWorks to connect CAMS with FixMyStreet Pro and improve the experience for everyone involved.”

Joanne Taylor, Rights of Way Operations Manager at Buckinghamshire Council, said: 

“This is an important development; the integrated link between FixMyStreet and Countryside Access Management systems will streamline the customer journey, enabling the Rights of Way Operations Team to provide up to date progression on defects recorded on the Rights of Way network, via both the Rights of Way online map and FixMyStreet.”

As a map-based reporting solution, FixMyStreet Pro can do lots of clever things to help users make accurate and actionable reports of local street, highway and environment faults.

From suggesting potential duplicate reports, to automatically diverting reports between different authorities – and even detecting when a report is being made on a private road.

How private road detection works on FixMyStreet Pro

Using an asset layer shared via integration with an asset management system, councils and other public authorities responsible for fixing local problems can detect when a user is trying to make a report on a private or unadopted road.

When making a report via an authority’s branded instance of FixMyStreet Pro, users find the location of their report either by typing in the area, postcode or street name if they know it, or by using their current geo-location.

The map then loads at that location, the pin can be placed on the map exactly where the problem is located and a category can be selected.

If the map pin is not placed on the asset layer which depicts the roads adopted by the council or authority in question, then the user can be shown a message to inform them and signpost to where they may be able to redirect their report.

In instances where certain assets on a private road remain the responsibility of the local council or authority, FixMyStreet Pro supports the triaging of this based on the report location and category.

This ensures the user never needs to worry about who’s responsible for what and the authority only receives reports they can deal with.

Private road detection on the national FixMyStreet site

As you may already know, FixMyStreet Pro was born out of FixMyStreet, the national reporting service launched by our parent charity mySociety in 2007.

Being a purposeful piece of technology which supports open standards to remove barriers to accessing useful services for the public sector, councils can opt to set up their own integration with FixMyStreet (for free) using a standard known as Open311.

Non-FixMyStreet Pro users who set up and run their own Open311 integration with the national reporting site can also supply their own asset layer for adopted or unadopted roads to help eliminate avoidable and incorrect reports. Find out more about the FixMyStreet Open311 API.

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For more information about how FixMyStreet Pro works, request a demo from our friendly team.

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A few weeks ago we blogged about how we are now using the OS Maps API for mapping tiles across all instances of FixMyStreet and FixMyStreet Pro, following the retirement of Microsoft’s Bing Maps API.

We mentioned the only difference users might notice is that the Bing Maps API provided an aerial view option which was sometimes used by our council cobrands. We suggested some potential solutions in the form of providing access to a GIS mapping server that can supply map tiles and aerial imagery, or providing OS imagery data for us to serve.

We’re pleased to report that this has been successful for Northumberland County Council, which is now able to serve aerial imagery from its GIS mapping server on its FixMyStreet Pro service.

Users can toggle between the ‘Aerial map’ and ‘Road map’ by clicking the satellite icon on the right side of the screen. 

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If you are a FixMyStreet Pro client and you would like to replicate this on your instance of the service, please open a ticket on our helpdesk service.

If you are not yet a FixMyStreet Pro client and you have questions about how the service works, please drop us a message and we’ll get back to you.