11:27am Monday 15th March 2010
By Kevin Bradford
HUNDREDS of residents have visited a complaints website to log their gripes about street damage in the borough.
Environment chiefs at Barnet Council have been inundated with messages about graffiti, broken paving slabs and potholes since the fixmystreet web page was set up in December.
More than 450 people have reported problems they have encountered in the borough's roads and have used the online site to upload details of the issues they want tackled “as a priority” in their area.
Once a report has been submitted, the information is sent to the relevant council department, and council bosses have said it has become an “effective and efficient” way of resolving concerns.
Cabinet member for environment and transport, Councillor Daniel Thomas, said the website was introduced to provide residents with an alternative way of reporting issues “at a very local level”.
He said: “Since its launch, the site has exceeded all our expectations and has proven to be an effective and efficient way of working with residents to fix problems as soon as they arise.”
Almost 300 reports were received by the council through the website in February, an increase of 125 compared to January.
The website, which is available via mobile phones, also allows users to send images of the problems as well as leave feedback on how well they felt the issue was resolved.
But Cllr Thomas admitted their was still work to be done to improve communication between residents.
He said: “This growth in the website is demonstrating that we seem to be better at fixing the problems than we are at telling people we have done so - the next step for us is to fix that."
To highlight a problem, visit Barnet.fixmystreet.com.
© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.times-series.co.uk/trade_directory/