Shropshire Council is lagging other councils on highways fault reporting. The online reporting system is clunky. It can be difficult to describe where the fault is especially in rural areas where postcodes can cover such wide areas, they are next to useless. But now the council is adopting Fix My Street as its main portal for reporting highways problems. Fix My Street also covers a lot more than potholes.
I would recommend this for reporting problems because it allows residents and councillors to see whether problems have been reported before, whether they have been fixed and whether there are more problems in some areas than others.
Fix My Street has been around since 2008. It allows users with a smart phone or working online to report:
Abandoned vehicles; bus stops; car parking, dog fouling; flyposting; fly-tipping; graffiti; parks/landscapes; pavements/footpaths; postholes; public rights of way; public toilets; road/highways; road traffic signs; refuse and recycling; street cleaning; street lighting; street nameplates; traffic lights; and trees.
There is no specific category for litter – I would use street cleaning.
Shropshire Council is in the process of introducing Fix My Street. Reports made now will go to the council. It is expecting a surge in identified highway problems due to the increased ease of reporting. It is planning to allocate an extra £2 million in this financial year to cover that. One of the things it needs to improve quickly is reporting to Fix My Street that problems have been fixed.
I would recommend using Fix My Street for reporting rather than the council’s website. It uses geolocation to determine where you are. Unless you are in a mobile signal not spot, that’s a lot easier than trying to describe where you are on the country lane that has just wrecked your tyre. Fix My Street also provides a public record of highways and other problems and that allows us to see whether they have been fixed or not.
For those who prefer hanging on the phone to speak to a call operator, ring 0345 678 9006, which is also the council’s contact number for emergencies.