UK iPhone app helps citizens inform councils

A British technology firm has created a global mobile application designed to instantly report local problems.

Belfast-based Lagan Technologies developed its free Citizens Connect application (app) for the iPhone to enable members of the public to report problems such as graffiti, potholes, broken lampposts and uncollected rubbish.

A number of UK local authorities are in talks to trial the innovative app, which lets people send a photo and GPS reference of the nuisance directly to the relevant council worker’s desktop or mobile phone.

Lagan Technologies recently launched Citizens Connect in Boston, Massachusetts, which allowed graffiti cleaners to quickly remove paint and predict where the culprits would go next.

The use of mobile devices to communicate with local councils is something we expect to soar in the years ahead.

Des Speed

Chief Executive, Lagan Technologies

People who use the app, which can be downloaded for free in the iTunes App store, get a confirmation on their mobile when the issue is solved.

Des Speed, chief executive at Lagan Technologies, said: “The use of mobile devices to communicate with local councils is something we expect to soar in the years ahead. We already work with 180 local governments worldwide – from Toronto to East Timor.

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“In many cases those governments are looking at ways in which mobile technology can create a closer link between local residents and the people directly responsible for service delivery.”

Industry analysts Gartner forecast there will be more than 1.82 billion internet-enabled mobile phones across the world by 2013, outstripping the predicted 1.78 billion computers.