Lichfield District Council develops 'My Area' - a widgetised system that provides 'local information for local residents'
Lichfield District Council has developed an online service called 'My Area' that enables residents to rapidly gain access to a single source of information on a wide range of aspects on their local area. Just by entering their postcode, local residents can customise an online enquiry to their specific location.
The UK Government's launch of data.gov.uk provided the inspiration and impetus for My Area which was developed by Lichfield District Council's web master - Stuart Harrison.
I developed 'My Area' as a custom script a while ago. I wanted to develop a 'One stop shop' of information for residents on where they live. Since then, a number of other councils were interested in having it too, so I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to make it into a series of widgets.
Stuart Harrison, Web Master, Lichfield District Council
Since its launch in 2009, My Area has proved to be extremely popular with local residents with over 20,000 people using the system to find information about local services and facts about their location. 'My Area' provides a single source of information from a wide range of sources within Lichfield Council's internal systems and also from external organisations.
The Council had previously provided an information system for residents that was not fit for purpose. It was not integrated with the main CMS which limited the range of information available and was also not extensively used as the user interface was not engaging. Development has been approached in stages initially focusing on addressing the need for a quick and easy way incorporate geographic data into 'My Area' before developing a custom script that has now become built into the Jadu Platform as a widgetised system.
Information initially provided included the following:
- Schools http://data.gov.uk/about - this facility links a postcode to the names of the nearest primary and secondary schools and also provides additional information from the Edubase website.
- County Councillor detail - it had previously not been possible to obtain county councillor details from a postcode. Lichfield DC utilised OpenlyLocal to overcome this issue. Openly Local is project to develop an open and unified way of accessing Local Government information. http://openlylocal.com
- Health Services - this service utilised the NHS Choices API to enable residents to look up their local health service by using a postcode.
- Reporting problems - The ability to report a problem to the council is incorporated into Lichfield's widgetised system using Fixmystreet http://www.fixmystreet.com/. This not only enables the council to publish the latest 'problem' reports but also cuts down the number of calls coming into the call centre as the additional visibility provided eliminates duplicate calls.
In addition, information on planning applications, bin collection days, members of parliament and parish councillors was also provided in the initial development.
The success of My Area has enabled other local councils that utilise Jadu Platform to benefit from this development, councils such as Cannock and Wyre have collaborated to replicate My Area on their own web sites.
Looking forward, My Area sees other major development - with the ability now to be able to search by property, not just postcode.
Additional features being added include:
- My Nearest - information about services near to the resident such as After School Clubs and Village Halls.
- Highways and Planning - providing information on local planning applications, road gritting and speed limits.
- Local statistics about your area - everything from crime statistics to local populations.
- Local Opinions - includes resident surveys