Agenda item

As resolved at the Environment Select Committee meeting held on 19 September 2023, the Committee will receive an update on the development of the MyWilts potholes reporting functionality.

This will also include the roadmap setting out planned improvements to MyWilts.

Councillor Ashley O’Neill, Cabinet Member for Governance, IT, Broadband, Digital, Licensing, and Staffing, alongside Mark Tucker, Director of ICT, and Andy Brown, Deputy Chief Executive and Corporate Director for Resources, updated the Committee on the development of the MyWilts pothole reporting functionality.

The importance of the app was emphasised in respect of identifying defects, improving resident engagement, and feedback. As such, the issues that had been experienced and raised regularly were acknowledged, but Members were informed that recent fixes had been undertaken to improve the technical issues within the app and the communications surrounding these. A replacement app (scheduled to launch in Summer 2024) was being developed to both address the issues being experienced in the current app, and the way in which the service operates and integrates with the app.

The difficulties associated with ensuring that the app and web-versions of the system worked across different phone operating systems alongside the complex nature of the Council’s organisational structure were highlighted. However, it was explained that the developers of the new iteration of the app were Council employees and therefore understood the nuances of the different internal systems and processes and could ensure synchronisation across the service as a whole. Officers noted that they were working hard to deliver a platform that met expectations and took away the current frustrations for users.

Officers presented a series of slides that explained the background of the project, the issues identified, the improvements made to the current app, and the communications between different services to understand internal processes and areas for improvement.

During the discussion, points included:

·       Members queried if other Local Authorities were developing similar apps. In response, it was explained that Wiltshire Council had the largest number of surface areas and therefore, more backend systems to link which was where most of the complexity lay. As such, there were not any common libraries/apps that had been developed and although officers had reached out to other Local Authorities, they did not feel there was an appetite for a cross-sector effort. However, officers had looked at best practice across the country and had applied these to the new design.

·       Members noted the reliance on one internal team to deliver the next iteration of the app and highlighted the importance of developing detailed guidance documents should another team need to take over due to unforeseen circumstances.

·       It was explained that officers had decided to adopt the industry standard progressive web app technology which used more generic tooling and one code base instead of the current 3 bases to reduce the complexities. It was noted that this may lead to slight differences on the installation methods, but these impacts would be addressed in due course upon completion. However, the skillsets of the developers could therefore be applied as a single approach to provide engineering and development resource in different areas of the Council.

·       The importance of a friendly user interface was emphasised, and it was noted that if the targeted Summer 2024 rollout was successful, there may be a period of time in which both apps could run concurrently. Therefore, officers were aiming to offer an early release to Members for feedback which can then be incorporated into the development process to address any early concerns.

Following which, it was:

Resolved:

The Committee:

1)    Noted the improvements made to the MyWilts application to provide more information to the public when a case is closed.

2)    Noted the roadmap for the planned improvements to the MyWilts application moving forward.

3)    Requested an update report after the release of the new MyWilts system in 2024.