Reports have started coming into our LoveLewisham app from FixMyStreet, via our new Open311 api. Open311 is an interface that allows 3rd party apps to share data with government services. The launch of our LoveLewisham app back in 2005 spawned a multitude of ‘Environmental Reporting Apps’. These apps aim to provide an easy way for residents to report things to their council, in the hope that the council will pay for an enhanced integrated version. This creates a problem for local authorities who have to deal with a variety of different systems. Open311 will help us deal with that problem. Any of these apps can now use our Open311 interface to send us their reports and receive updates from our workforce. That means we can reduce the time we spend dealing with formatted e-mails or 3rd party ‘administrative backends’.
From April this year we will only respond to reports that come to us via Open311. We really hope that others follow FixMyStreet and demonstrate a real commitment to helping maintain our environment and reduce costs.
Love Lewisham 