The reporting of potholes, illegal dumping, leaks and other such issues to both town and county councils was once upon a time in the main part the work of elected councillors. But not so any more. The elected members of Mayo County Council were given a demonstration on the new www.fixyourstreet.ie website and some were not impressed with what they saw.
The new site, which is managed by South Dublin County Council for all councils in the country, lets members of the public report a problem in a number of categories such as graffiti, leaks and drainage, litter and illegal dumping, road or path defects, street light and tree and grass maintenance direct to the website. The public can upload their complaint, the location of the problem, and even add a picture or video link to the problem if the have one. The complaint is then automatically sent to Mayo County Council, who will respond to the complainant and set in train a programme to get the issue dealt with. Each complaint will be posted on the website where all members of the public can see them and comment on each post to add more information if they want. The members were also told that a Fix Your Street app was also in development for both the iOS and Android platforms and should be available soon, where people will be able to lodge a complaint on the spot.
A number of councillors raised legitimate questions about whether this new service would speed up the repairs, and if it would have legal implications if something was not fixed and an accident occurred because of it. A few others were just not in favour of it at all. Cllr Gerry Coyle told the meeting, “This is pure nonsense, we could do something more positive”. Cllr Eddie Staunton said, “I won’t be using it, pure lunacy it is,” while Cllr Johnny O’Malley said, “It’s a daft idea, let’s face it, potholes on a list doesn’t mean it’s going to be done. The sad thing is that the only chance that anyone has in getting work done on a pothole is that if someone dies in a village (to fix up the road for a funeral ).” Meanwhile Cllr Annie May Reape told the meeting “there is nothing wrong with the system we have already”.
