Send councils reminders once number of updates reaches certain level

[Deborah-mySoc]

Suggestion from user, perhaps worth considering (especially for those reports where someone fills in the questionnaire for months and months):

Some time ago I posted an update on an issue logged by somebody else.
Since then, the OP has posted many more updates which obviously go
nowhere.
I have also posted a couple of updates on some of my own reports and
the road affected remains untouched.

It occurs to me that if there is an input "hiccup" at the Council
call-centre when the fault is passed to them, then that's it. Similarly,
perish the thought, but if the relevant roads office was having a bad
day and "overlooked" the report rather than passing it out for
inspection, nothing more would happen. I realise that Councils should
have checks in place to guard against this, but do they?

Here is my bright idea! Would it be possible for you to place an
"update counter" on incidents and if the number of updates breaches a
threshold - say five, ten, fifteen - then a reminder/refresher gets sent
to the relevant Council? The existence of this counter need not be
advised to the general public but it would close a potential "pothole"
in your effectiveness.

Hope this is of assistance.

[MyfanwyNixon]

Related user comment, via feedback email:

"Not sending updates to council is probably a big mistake! How are they going to know the problem is on-going? Just a thought."

[MyfanwyNixon]

Comment via Twitter: "It's a shame councils don't get sent updates. Perhaps registered users comments could be forwarded to keep them informed?"

[MyfanwyNixon]

User feedback:

"Sometimes the Council's contractors attempt a temporary repair, but this is usually of such an amateurish standard that it fails after a week or so.

If I report this as an update it does not get brought to the Council's attention. I think it would be really useful if updates were forwarded to the Council as a matter of course - I believe you have mentioned this as a possibility in the past."

[MyfanwyNixon]

User feedback: "They [the council] don't seem to check your website for updates before logging the report."

(His point was that they seem to attend to flytipping reports weekly, by which time the item has often gone - but they don't know because they don't get the updates. So council time and money gets wasted, and I expect it erodes their goodwill to us somewhat)

[Gemmamysoc]

User feedback: "What is the point of updates not being sent to the council. It is a
total waste of time to use this website, if any updates we do are
not sent back to the council. This is not enough if all the website
is doing is passing message between us and the council, if there is
no further interaction in between. For instance, a reported problem
previously has not been fixed and the council are totally
uninterested. Any updates I have further reported on this problem
are just there and they are not even sent to the council. So how do
they know that this is being updated?"

[Gemmamysoc]

User feedback:

"I think you should be able to send a photo to the council when you
update a problem. Sometimes I add a photo after I've made a report,
for instance if I see something one day then take a photo of it when
I go back the next. It'd be good to know why photos aren't sent when
you update a problem. (I'm sure the council would find a photo of
the problem useful.)"

[MyfanwyNixon]

Via Twitter: 'maybe updates should be sent to council':

https://twitter.com/rugbytap/status/782895536462565377

[MyfanwyNixon]

On balance I agree with these users.

• Many users already think updates are sent to the council, despite the wording explaining that they aren't
• It's kind of sad replying to users who say 'I've been posting updates every six weeks for nine years and the council still haven't done anything'
• It's not really ideal to have to begin a new report if you want to chase an old one or say that a repair has been ineffectual
• Councils would probably be glad to be kept informed in the cases where community discussions are breaking out, but if any became overwhelming/off topic, perhaps we could introduce a 'don't send me any more updates' button for council workers, within the report emails; the reports where this had been clicked could have a design that showed this was the case.

[MyfanwyNixon]

Via Twitter:

If you don't send updates to the council, how am I supposed to get them to look at further evidence?

[abibroom]

A further user comment in support of sending updates:

If a problem is reported, then subsequently updated as fixed, couldn't that fixed update be sent on to the council? It might save some unnecessary council work.

[dracos]

Just not going to happen; would only annoy and lead to more refusing emails.