South Australia’s City of Port Adelaide Enfield is one of several councils using a smart phone application to keep up to date with maintenance needs in its community.
NeatStreets is a mobile phone based service that makes it simple for people to report problems in their locality, with a few simple clicks.
Anyone with a smart phone can report a problem, such as graffiti, signage, litter and traffic potholes – and they can do it with photos.
The problem is automatically routed to the relevant authority – whether it be a council, a utility service provider, transport authority, rail authority, government department or supermarket. Best of all, the person that reported the issue is kept informed of progress on their phone until it is fixed.
The City of Port Adelaide Enfield added the NeatStreets application to its suite of online services last December.
Residents can report requests for service via their smart phones using a free application, which they can download from the NeatStreets website.
They can take a photo of the issue, for example, a damaged footpath, and the report goes directly to NeatStreets before being forwarded to Council or the relevant authority.
"The report is received by our Records Management Team in email format, who forward it to the relevant actioning officer," said the City’s Online Services Development Officer Silvana Segat. "The actioning officer treats the request as they would treat any other received in writing, via phone or email. It is logged and tracked as per our normal reporting processes."
Port Adelaide Enfield currently provides a link from its website to the NeatStreets website, where residents can download the free application to their smart phones.
NeatStreets also recently offered Council a user login, enabling the City to view its reports.
"Using the login allows us to view reports generated for our Council area," Silvana Segat said. "In the last two weeks, we have received nine requests from the NeatStreets application concerning parking issues, graffiti and fallen tree branches.
"More and more people are using smart phones and having this service on our website provides another medium for customers to submit requests to Council."
Logan City Council in southeast Queensland is also promoting NeatStreets to its residents and using the add on reporting service. Council’s IT Department has also integrated NeatStreets into its asset management system.
NeatStreets is available free of charge to Iphone, Android and Blackberry users.
The service is currently interacting with over 100 authorities across Australia and New Zealand, and has a user base across all States in Australia, with an application download rate of 50 to 100 per week.
For further information contact Neil Kuruppu at NeatStreets on (03) 9939 8558 or 0405 357 614 or visit www.neatstreets.com.au
