I apologise to non UK readers as this is a UK only site, It’s not often you come across web sites which have a really obvious real-life local community benefit. That’s why fixmystreet.co.uk put a smile on my face. Type in your postcode and you can quickly see all reported problems around your area, you can also navigate on the map and report a problem and upload a photo.

The issues are then sent to the local council and their status of repair then reported back to the web site.Fixmystreet a great idea and I really hope it gets the interest and backing it deserves. It stems from a charitable organisation called mysociety.org which has 2 goals “The first is to be a charitable project which builds websites that give people simple, tangible benefits in the civic and community aspects of their lives. The second is to teach the public and voluntary sectors, through demonstration, how to most efficiently use the Internet to improve lives.” (quote from mysociety.org)There are a few core developers but a lot of the work is done through volunteers. The site is still in beta and has a few rough edges such as zooming around the map, but if you’re just looking and reporting on problems that are local to you then the site is ideal. It’s easy to forget what kind of problems the council deals with – How many times have you seen a streetlight not working, or graffiti on an underpass, maybe a shopping trolley in a stream, or a vandalized bus stop, maybe even a blocked drain, or an overgrown hedge. It helps the local council by making them aware of the problem, and it helps the local community by keeping things tidy, and working.

You can even flick through current problems for each local council, eventually this will lead to a scoreboard style system that lets you view which councils have fixed the most problems. It really does make you feel closer to the community, and it’s a site that I’m keeping an eye on. I really hope that sites like this will stimulate other people into direct community action. Great stuff.