Frequently Asked Questions
- What is this site?
- FixMyStreet is a site to help people report to their local authority, view, or discuss local issues they’ve found, by simply locating them on a map.
- How do I get in touch with FixMyStreet?
- Here’s our contact page.
- What sort of problems should I report with FixMyStreet?
- This depends upon the precise purpose of FixMyStreet;
in the UK, FixMyStreet is primarily for reporting things which are
broken or dirty or damaged or dumped, and need fixing, cleaning
or clearing, such as:
- Abandoned vehicles
- Dog Fouling
- Flyposting or graffiti
- Flytipping or litter
- Streetcleaning, such as broken glass in a cycle lane
- Unlit lampposts
- Potholes
- What isn’t FixMyStreet for?
- FixMyStreet is not a way of getting in touch with your
authority for all issues – please use this site only for problems
such as the above. We often route problem reports via cleansing services or
highways and so using this site for other matters may result in a delay in
your report getting to the right department. You will need to
contact your authority directly for problems such as:
- Anti-social behaviour
- Any urgent or emergency problems
- Noise pollution or barking dogs
- Fires and smoke/smell pollution
- Missing wheelie bins or recycling boxes or missed rubbish collections
- Proposals for speed bumps/ CCTV/ pedestrian crossings/ new road layouts/ etc.
- Complaining about your neighbours
- Complaining about the authority
- Joy riding, drug taking, animal cruelty, or other criminal activity
Authorities often have direct hotlines for these sorts of issues.
- How do I use the site?
- After entering a location, you are presented with a map of that area. You can view problems already reported in that area, or report ones of your own by clicking on the map at the location of the problem.
- How are the problems solved?
- They are reported to the relevant authority by email. The authority can then resolve the problem the way they normally would. Alternatively, you can discuss the problem on the website with others, and then together lobby the authority to fix it, or fix it directly yourselves.
- Is it free?
- The site is free to use, yes. The FixMyStreet Platform is maintained by a registered charity, so if you want to make a contribution, please do.
- Can I use FixMyStreet on my mobile?
-
The FixMyStreet website will already work on your mobile phone, adapting to the size of your screen automatically.
Practical Questions
- I’m from an authority, where do you send the reports?
- You can either leave a test report or contact us to find out where reports go at the moment. Also contact us to update the address or addresses we use.
- I’m from an authority, can we have FixMyStreet on our website?
- Quite possibly – contact the people who run this site.
- Do you remove silly or illegal content?
- FixMyStreet is not responsible for the content and accuracy of material submitted by its users. We reserve the right to edit or remove any problems or updates which we consider to be inappropriate upon being informed by a user of the site.
- Why can’t I zoom out more on the reporting map?
- We want to keep FixMyStreet locally focused, so restrict the ability to move radically between areas. The map on Your Reports will let you see all the reports you’ve made, wherever they are. If you’re from the authority then the emailed version of the problem report might also contain the closest road or postcode to the pin on the map.
Organisation Questions
- Who built FixMyStreet?
- This will depend upon the installation of the FixMyStreet Platform,
who should create their own
faq/template in their cobrand directory to replace this default one. The FixMyStreet Platform was built by mySociety. - Do you need any help with the project?
- Yes, we can use help in all sorts of ways, technical or non-technical. Please see our Get Involved page.
- I’d like a site like this for my own location/ where’s the "source code" to this site?
- The software behind this site is open source, and available to you mainly under the GNU Affero GPL software license. You can download the source code and help us develop it. You’re welcome to use it in your own projects, although you must also make available the source code to any such projects. FixMyStreet.com is the original code installation, in the UK, and Fiksgatami is an example of the code being used in Norway.