Harringay online

Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

Haringey have just launched this app - you can find it in the App Store.

Based on the Love Clean Streets initiative, an app (application) has been developed for smart phones called Our Haringey. This app allows anyone living, working or visiting the borough to report street-based problems to the council in just a few clicks on their phone.
The app has been developed by a team across IT, Single Frontline and Communications and has been trialled with a group of residents and officers.
The app is compatible with most iPhone and Android smart phones (i.e. not Windows or Blackberry phones).
How to download
The Our Haringey app is available for free download in the App Store for iPhone and the Play Store for Android phones. Just search for it in those respective stores. Once downloaded, you need to register with your email address and validate this from your email account. Please be aware that as part of the registration process it can take several hours for your account to be validated.

How does it work?
The app allows issues to be reported in a few simple steps:
The app uses the GPS in your phone to locate your position.
You can then take a photo of the issue you wish to report. If someone else has already reported the same issue it will be shown on the app, saving you from duplicating the report.
You then add a description of the issue and any location information which may help our teams find the problem (the ‘hashtag’ box can be ignored if you wish);
You then select a category for your issue from the drop-down list (see list below).

Once you submit a report you will receive an automatic confirmation from the Love Clean Streets system. Your report then goes directly into the council’s Confirm system, or goes to Veolia where applicable. Depending on the issue reported, you will receive another email to confirm works are in progress, and a final confirmation when works have been completed.

The GPS location ensures only Haringey issues are sent through to us. If the app is used outside the borough, issues are sent to the relevant authority by the Love Clean Streets system.

What can be reported?
The categories you can report issues against are:

· Damaged street furniture
· Dead animals
· Dog fouling
· Dumped rubbish
· Gullies (drains)
· Fly posting
· Graffiti
· Lighting, lit signs and lit bollards
· Litter, street cleaning
· Manhole covers
· Overgrown Hedges & Shrubs
· Paths & Pavements
· Potholes
· Recycling Banks
· Road markings - white
· Road markings - yellow
· Road defects
· Signs
·

Tags for Forum Posts: love clean streets app, our haringey app

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What's the rationale for spending money on developing an app that duplicates what Love Clean Streets already does?

Aidan I suggest you and I and other people try it out and see how helpful it is.

Incidentally I was told about this at the end of last year and asked if I'd take part in a pilot on my Council mobile. I explained that I don't have a Council supplied (or indeed any) mobile. But I offered to try it out on my own Windows desktop PC. I never heard any more until recently. So I can't give a proper review.

Until now I've recommended that people use FixMyStreet because of its maps & also because its reports & photos can be viewed by anyone. On its website FixMyStreet offers to link to local councils. So I've no idea why this wasn't considered. (Maybe it was? After all, why tell councillors?) 

Months ago when I used "Love Clean Streets" I found it a bit slow and clunky. I tried again this evening adding a photo. It gave me an error message. Which wasn't encouraging. I got an email so the report went through. But I don't know if my photo also did, because there doesn't appear to be a facility to view this.

The problem I reported was a street name sign which tends to get covered in stickers and needs cleaning. But the automatically generated email tells me that i reported a "a Highways Defective Unlit Sign problem".

Not promising.

(Tottenham Hale ward councillor)

I was going to mention FixMyStreet too. I appreciate there may be a reason for duplicating established services, and maybe that is because Haringey considered them inadequate. I'd like to know what the rationale was. I'd also like to know the cost actually. I'll FOI that now but I'd appreciate an answer from any of the councillors or officials here.

If every council in the country took this approach there would be over 400 of these apps. You don't have to be Eric Pickles to consider that bonkers.

I am using this app and it works very well. It pinpoints accurately where you are, you can take photos and it is very easy to use. 

I used Love Clean Streets but it basically didn't work and reports were not acted upon. Using Fix My Street sends the report all around the houses and results in emails asking you to use the council website! Not their fault of course and there may be questions to be answered about why they chose not to use the FMS service that links more effectively with local councils. 

Key for me now that the app exists is to see if using the app is as effective as using the report a problem website which was until now the quickest way to get a problem fixed. it would be useful if people can share any problems they might have in getting action on a reported problem.

Last time I used Fix My Street I got a response by email very quickly from Haringey, I didn't have to email them separately. So if there's a problem there it's not apparent as a user.

I've used the LCS app in the past without a problem, though I admit it's been a while.

I assume Haringey isn't of the opinion that there is a problem with LCS given this app uses their system.

I'm not saying there's anything wrong here, but that it doesn't (yet) make sense to me.

Reading the details on the iTunes store - it looks like under-the-hood its the same app, by the same developer as lovecleanstreets.

Its just had a quick (and probably relatively cheap) rebrand for Haringey council, just change a couple of fonts and picture-paths in the code. (I haven't used the app. but couldn't be very much work, esp. if it was initailly coded for rebranding.)

It might be an initiative by the developer as opposed to Harinegey Council  to make some money back on the dev. costs?

There's several rebranded versions already:

http://lovecleanstreets.org/home/network

Sure, that would make sense. (Though that's not the impression I get from the original post.)

But again I'd ask what the point of that is. Why not just encourage everyone to use one app wherever they happen to be in the country, rather than having users worry about where local authority boundaries are.

I used Love Clean Streets but it basically didn't work and reports were not acted upon.

Me too, and i stopped bothering for the same reason. It will be great if this new Haringey app actually gets something to be done.  

To try it out i did this one for some dumping on Sydney Rd, will report back here with what happens. From that link at the bottom of the page you can find all the reports that have been done in the Harringay ward, 21 in the last month and only one, from the 17 September, has actually been completed so far.

Thanks, Ant. That's exactly the sort of practical testing I'm hoping to see. In particular whether it enables a similar mapping facility as FixMyStreet. Crucially with the possibility of residents (not just staff) being able to see what else was reported, by who, when, and if the problem was resolved.

In a similar way, it's very useful to be able to see - on the map and if possible with photos - when there appear to be patterns of repeated or similar problems at the same location. It's then possible to "reframe" a problem and start looking for causes and possible solutions.

I don't mean that in some kind of theoretical sense. The aim is hard-headed clear-eyed observation and understanding of what's going on with a view to preventing it. Liz Ixer's Flickr photos when she was a Community Volunteer contain some good examples.

Incidentally. the last Environment Scrutiny panel was told that the Community Volunteer Scheme will be relaunched shortly - renamed Environment Champions.

Must be an election coming.

I used to use Love Clean Streets on my phone and didn't run into any problems. I noticed that my old reports in Love Clean Streets are also in the new Haringey app.

One thing to note is that generally the reports on the app do not show as completed, however when you click onto the link to the Haringey website it shows as being completed there.

Could you post a link to one that shows as completed or say more about how to see that? Eg here's the link for that big dump in the passage the other week which is still showing as open - http://our.haringey.gov.uk/Reports/Report/1210fec6-cc70-4e87-a081-c...

I couldn't find the report which said completed but I have looked at the Our Haringey page and for the Harringay ward, it lists 118 reports since 1st January (all catergories) of which only 17 were reported as completed. Only 9 of these were reported as dumped rubbish, and none of them are completed. This is strange as it doesn't show any of my reports of dumped rubbish, yet when I open the link to the email I receive after reporting dumped rubbish via the Love Clean Streets/Our Haringey app, it directs to our.haringey.gov.uk/reports. Even when I search under all wards, I cannot find my reports. You would think that all reports would be found, compiled under the catergory and ward (as you need to enter the post code). They're clearly not using this data for statistical purposes.

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