Want to report a pothole? Don’t do it on an old Android phone
Complaints about the MyWilts app are flooding councillor inboxes
If you want to report a pothole in Wiltshire, don’t do it on an old Android device.
That was the message from Wiltshire Council’s director of IT to an influential group of councillors.
With potholes and road surface repair being a key issue for the council in the first three months of the year, the authority has been directing residents to the MyWilts app to report road defects.
Using the MyWilts app, registered users should be able to log a pothole, see if it’s been reported already, and check repair progress.
But too many residents are becoming frustrated by the app telling them a pothole has been repaired when it hasn’t.
At a meeting of the council’s Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee, members considered a report from its MyWilts task group.
MyWilts is Wiltshire Council’s primary digital platform for reporting local issues –
including potholes, fly-tipping, dog mess, and abandoned vehicles.
Residents can also book to register births, marriages and deaths and – if the council’s proposed trial goes ahead – book a visit to the recycling centre.
In fact, the committee heard, the app sits above a complex set of 77 separate back-end systems, including the Highways Asset Management System used by the highways service.
Committee chairman Graham Wright told members: “I am now able, as anybody is able, to click on that dot and find out when (a pothole) was reported, where it is, and ask for updates on email.
“I think that’s absolutely dynamite for us.”
But Cllr Gerry Kunkler said: “You’ve got your case number, you’ve got your status, you make a report of a pothole or a defect, and within 24 hours the sign comes up ‘Closed’. No work has been done, no update, nothing.
And Cllr Tamara Reay read an email from a resident, who complained: “I have received the following standard reply that I often get from Wiltshire Council. ‘Thank you for your report. This issue has already been reported and is under investigation’.
“On checking in the My Records section of the website, I note that the incident status is completed, which it obviously is not.”
The report also found that users of Android devices – the platform used by around 70 per cent of the population – might not be able to use the vital Maps function.
Cllr Ruth Hopkinson said: “One of the glitches that came up was it was working perfectly on (Apple platform) iOS and not on Android.”
The council’s director of IT, Mark Tucker, told the committee: “No piece of software is ever perfect or is ever finished. It is very much our intention to continue developing MyWilts.”
He said reports were sometimes marked as Closed when they had, in fact, been reported for action. This was particularly likely when dealing with third-party contractors.
“We are looking at the mapping to see if we can make adjustments, by saying something like ‘In Progress’ rather than ‘Closed’. And we need to make sure that the ‘Closed’ function is triggered when the work is actually done.”
He added: “There were a couple of different issues that we’ve discovered with the mapping as it pertains to the Android version of the MyWilts app.
“The tools that we use to develop MyWilts support the current running version of Android or iOS, and the previous running version.
“After that, all bets are off, I’m afraid.
“Sometimes it’s an easy answer – I’m sorry, your phone is too old. Sometimes there is definitely a technical issue.”
The committee heard the pothole repair function is currently in a ‘soft launch’ phase and will be promoted when the glitches are ironed out.