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<div class="sticky-sidebar">
    <aside>
        <ul class="plain-list">
            <li><a href="#faq">Frequently Asked Questions</a></li>
            <li><a href="#practical">Practical Questions</a></li>
            <li><a href="#organisation">Organisation Questions</a></li>
            <li><a href="/privacy">Privacy and cookies</a></li>
            <li><a href="/contact">Contact FixMyStreet</a></li>
        </ul>
    </aside>
</div>

<h1><a name="faq"></a>Frequently Asked Questions</h1>
    <dl>
        <dt>What is FixMyStreet?</dt>
        <dd>FixMyStreet is a site to help people report, view,
or discuss local problems they&rsquo;ve found to their local council by
simply locating them on a map. It launched in early February
2007.</dd>

        <dt>What sort of problems should I report with FixMyStreet?</dt>
        <dd>FixMyStreet is primarily for reporting things which are
<strong>broken or dirty or damaged or dumped, and need fixing, cleaning
or clearing</strong>, such as:

    <ul><li>Abandoned vehicles
    <li>Dog Fouling
    <li>Flyposting or graffiti
    <li>Flytipping or litter
    <li>Streetcleaning, such as broken glass in a cycle lane
    <li>Unlit lamposts
    <li>Potholes
    </ul>
    </dd>

    <dt>What isn&rsquo;t FixMyStreet for?</dt>
    <dd>FixMyStreet is not a way of getting in touch with the council for all
    issues &ndash; please use FixMyStreet only for problems such as the above. We
    often route problem reports via cleansing services or highways and so using
    FixMyStreet for other matters may result in a delay in your report getting
    to the right department. <strong>You will need to contact the council
    directly for problems such as</strong>: 

    <ul><li>Anti-social behaviour
    <li>Any urgent or emergency problems
    <li>Noise pollution or barking dogs
    <li>Fires and smoke/smell pollution
    <li>Missing wheelie bins or recycling boxes or missed rubbish collections
    <li>Proposals for speed bumps/ CCTV/ pedestrian crossings/ new road layouts/ etc.
    <li>Complaining about your neighbours
    <li>Complaining about the council
    <li>Joy riding, drug taking, animal cruelty, or other criminal activity
    </ul>
    <p>Councils often have direct hotlines for these sorts of issues.</p>
    </dd>

        <dt>Should I report a pothole on this site, or call?</dt>
<dd>
<p>Please use the following chart to determine the size of any pot holes being reported and whether to submit a report using this online form or by telephone.

<p>Chart to go here.</p>

</dd>

        <dt>How do I use the site?</dt>
        <dd>After entering a postcode or location, you are presented
with a map of that area. You can view problems already reported in that area,
or report ones of your own simply by clicking on the map at the location of
the problem.</dd>

        <dt>How are the problems solved?</dt>
        <dd>They are reported to the council by email. The
council can then resolve the problem the way they normally would.
Alternatively, you can discuss the problem on the website with others, and
then together lobby the council to fix it, or fix it directly yourselves.</dd>

        <dt>Is it free?</dt>
        <dd>The site is free to use, yes. FixMyStreet is run
by a registered charity, though, so if you want to make a contribution, <a
href="https://secure.mysociety.org/donate/">please do</a>.</dd>

    <dt>Can I use FixMyStreet on my mobile?</dt>
    <dd>
    <p>The FixMyStreet website should work on your mobile phone, adapting to
    the size of your screen automatically. We plan to release updated native
    apps in the near future.
    <ul>
    <li><em>iPhone:</em> Our basic app from 2008 is available for download
    on the App Store:
    <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/fixmystreet/id297456545">FixMyStreet</a>,
    <li><em>Android:</em> A volunteer, <NAME>, has written an app
    available from the 
    <a href="https://market.android.com/details?id=com.android.fixmystreet">Android Market</a>.
    <li><em>Nokia:</em> A volunteer, <NAME>, has written an app available from the
    <a href="http://store.ovi.com/content/107557">Ovi Store</a>.
    </ul>
    </dd>

    </dl>

    <h2><a name="practical"></a>Practical Questions</h2>
    <dl>
        <dt>Do you remove silly or illegal content?</dt>
        <dd>FixMyStreet is not responsible for the content and accuracy
of material submitted by its users. We reserve the right to edit or remove any
problems or updates which we consider to be inappropriate upon being informed
by a user of the site.</dd>

    <dt>Why does the site use kilometres for measurements?</dt>
    <dd>Thanks for asking politely &ndash; we never quite understand why some of the rudest
    emails we receive are on this topic. The British national
    grid reference system, devised by Ordnance Survey (the British national
    mapping agency) around the time of the second world war, uses eastings and
    northings measured in metres and kilometres; the maps we use are from
    Ordnance Survey and so this is what we use to display distances.
    There you have it: not everything British is in miles!</dd>

    <dt>Why can&rsquo;t I zoom out more on the reporting map?</dt>
    <dd>We want to keep FixMyStreet locally focused, so restrict the ability to
    move radically between areas. The map on Your Reports will let you see all
    the reports you&rsquo;ve made, wherever they are. If you&rsquo;re from the
    council then the emailed version of the problem report also contains the
    closest road and postcode to the pin on the map.</dd>

    <dt>This site is great – why aren&rsquo;t you better publicised?</dt>
    <dd>As a tiny charity we simply don&rsquo;t have a publicity budget, and we
    rely on word of mouth to advertise the site. We have a whole <a
    href="posters/">array of posters, flyers and badges</a> if you&rsquo;d like
    to publicise us on the web or in your local area, and why not write to your
    local paper to let them know about us?</dd> </dl>
    
    <h2><a name="organisation"></a>Organisation Questions</h2>
    <dl>
        <dt>Who built FixMyStreet?</dt>
        <dd>This site was built by <a href="http://www.mysociety.org/">mySociety</a>,
        in conjunction with the <a href="http://www.youngfoundation.org.uk/">Young Foundation</a>.
mySociety is the project of a registered charity which has grown out of the community of
volunteers who built sites like <a href="http://www.theyworkforyou.com/">TheyWorkForYou.com</a>. 
mySociety&rsquo;s primary mission is to build Internet projects which give people simple, tangible
benefits in the civic and community aspects of their lives. Our first project
was <a href="http://www.writetothem.com/">WriteToThem</a>, where you can write to any of your
elected representatives, for free. The charity is called UK Citizens Online Democracy and is charity number 1076346. mySociety 
can be contacted by email at <a href="mailto:hello&#64;mysociety.org">hello&#64;mysociety.org</a>,
or by post at mySociety, 483 Green Lanes, London, N13 4BS, UK.</dd>
        <dt><img src="/i/moj.png" align="right" alt="Ministry of Justice" hspace="10">Who pays for it?</dt>
        <dd>FixMyStreet was originally paid for via the Department for
        Constitutional Affairs Innovations Fund. It is now funded by a variety of means, from commercial
        work to <a href="http://www.mysociety.org/donate/">donations</a>.</dd>
        <dt><a name="nfi"></a>Wasn&rsquo;t this site called Neighbourhood Fix-It?</dt>
        <dd>Yes, we changed the name mid June 2007. We decided
Neighbourhood Fix-It was a bit of a mouthful, hard to spell, and hard to publicise (does the URL have a dash in it or not?). The domain FixMyStreet became available, and everyone liked the name.</dd>
        <dt>Do you need any help with the project?</dt>
        <dd>Yes, we can use help in all sorts of ways, technical or
non-technical.  Please see our <a
href="http://www.mysociety.org/helpus/">Get Involved page</a>.</dd>
        <dt>I&rsquo;d like a site like this for my own location/ where&rsquo;s the "source code" to this site?</dt>
        <dd>
The software behind this site is open source, and available
to you mainly under the GNU Affero GPL software license. You can <a
href="http://github.com/mysociety/fixmystreet">download the
source code</a> and help us develop it.
You&rsquo;re welcome to use it in your own projects, although you must also
make available the source code to any such projects.
<a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">Fiksgatami</a> is an example of our code
being used in a Norwegian version of this site.
</dd>
<dt>I&rsquo;d prefer code in a different language?</dt>
<dd>
VisibleGovernment.ca wrote their own code for
<a href="http://www.fixmystreet.ca/">http://www.fixmystreet.ca/</a>, which is
written in GeoDjango and available under an MIT licence at <a
href="http://github.com/visiblegovernment/django-fixmystreet/tree/master">github</a>.
Or <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.org.nz/">FixMyStreet.org.nz</a> is written in
Drupal.
</p>
</dd>
        <dt>People build things, not organisations. Who <em>actually</em> built it?</dt>
        <dd><NAME> and <NAME> wrote the site,
<NAME> wrote the tileserver and map cutter, <NAME> created
our pins, <NAME> keeps things up-to-date and does user support,
<NAME> designed our posters, and <NAME> managed it all.

Thanks also to
<a href="http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk">Ordnance Survey</a> (for the maps,
UK postcodes, and UK addresses &ndash; data &copy; Crown copyright, all
rights reserved, Ministry of Justice 100037819&nbsp;2008),
Yahoo! for their BSD-licensed JavaScript libraries, the entire free software
community (this particular project was brought to you by Perl, PostgreSQL,
and the number 161.290) and <a
href="http://www.bytemark.co.uk/">Bytemark</a> (who kindly host all
our servers).

Let us know if we&rsquo;ve missed anyone.</dd>
    </dl>
[% INCLUDE 'footer.html' pagefooter = 'yes' %]
<commit_msg>Add pothole chart.<commit_after>[% INCLUDE 'header.html', title => loc('Frequently Asked Questions'), bodyclass => 'twothirdswidthpage' %]

<div class="sticky-sidebar">
    <aside>
        <ul class="plain-list">
            <li><a href="#faq">Frequently Asked Questions</a></li>
            <li><a href="#practical">Practical Questions</a></li>
            <li><a href="#organisation">Organisation Questions</a></li>
            <li><a href="/privacy">Privacy and cookies</a></li>
            <li><a href="/contact">Contact FixMyStreet</a></li>
        </ul>
    </aside>
</div>

<h1><a name="faq"></a>Frequently Asked Questions</h1>
    <dl>
        <dt>What is FixMyStreet?</dt>
        <dd>FixMyStreet is a site to help people report, view,
or discuss local problems they&rsquo;ve found to their local council by
simply locating them on a map. It launched in early February
2007.</dd>

        <dt>What sort of problems should I report with FixMyStreet?</dt>
        <dd>FixMyStreet is primarily for reporting things which are
<strong>broken or dirty or damaged or dumped, and need fixing, cleaning
or clearing</strong>, such as:

    <ul><li>Abandoned vehicles
    <li>Dog Fouling
    <li>Flyposting or graffiti
    <li>Flytipping or litter
    <li>Streetcleaning, such as broken glass in a cycle lane
    <li>Unlit lamposts
    <li>Potholes
    </ul>
    </dd>

    <dt>What isn&rsquo;t FixMyStreet for?</dt>
    <dd>FixMyStreet is not a way of getting in touch with the council for all
    issues &ndash; please use FixMyStreet only for problems such as the above. We
    often route problem reports via cleansing services or highways and so using
    FixMyStreet for other matters may result in a delay in your report getting
    to the right department. <strong>You will need to contact the council
    directly for problems such as</strong>: 

    <ul><li>Anti-social behaviour
    <li>Any urgent or emergency problems
    <li>Noise pollution or barking dogs
    <li>Fires and smoke/smell pollution
    <li>Missing wheelie bins or recycling boxes or missed rubbish collections
    <li>Proposals for speed bumps/ CCTV/ pedestrian crossings/ new road layouts/ etc.
    <li>Complaining about your neighbours
    <li>Complaining about the council
    <li>Joy riding, drug taking, animal cruelty, or other criminal activity
    </ul>
    <p>Councils often have direct hotlines for these sorts of issues.</p>
    </dd>

        <dt><a name="pothole"></a>Should I report a pothole on this site, or call?</dt>
<dd>
<p>Please use the following chart to determine the size of any pot holes being
reported and whether to submit a report online or by telephone.</p>

<ul>
<li>Depth of a milk bottle, <em>or</em> size of a dustbin lid? <strong>Call</strong>.
<li>Depth of a golf/ping pong ball? <strong>Report online</strong>
<li>Depth of a tennis ball, size of a dinner plate, <em>and</em> on a busy carriageway? <strong>Call</strong>
<li>Depth of a tennis ball, otherwise? <strong>Report online</strong>
<li>Depth of a coke can, on a pathway or busy carriageway? <strong>Call</strong>
<li>Depth of a coke can, size of a dinner plate, on a quiet carriageway? <strong>Call</strong>
<li>Depth of a coke can, otherwise? <strong>Report online</strong>
<li>

</dd>

        <dt>How do I use the site?</dt>
        <dd>After entering a postcode or location, you are presented
with a map of that area. You can view problems already reported in that area,
or report ones of your own simply by clicking on the map at the location of
the problem.</dd>

        <dt>How are the problems solved?</dt>
        <dd>They are reported to the council by email. The
council can then resolve the problem the way they normally would.
Alternatively, you can discuss the problem on the website with others, and
then together lobby the council to fix it, or fix it directly yourselves.</dd>

        <dt>Is it free?</dt>
        <dd>The site is free to use, yes. FixMyStreet is run
by a registered charity, though, so if you want to make a contribution, <a
href="https://secure.mysociety.org/donate/">please do</a>.</dd>

    <dt>Can I use FixMyStreet on my mobile?</dt>
    <dd>
    <p>The FixMyStreet website should work on your mobile phone, adapting to
    the size of your screen automatically. We plan to release updated native
    apps in the near future.
    <ul>
    <li><em>iPhone:</em> Our basic app from 2008 is available for download
    on the App Store:
    <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/fixmystreet/id297456545">FixMyStreet</a>,
    <li><em>Android:</em> A volunteer, <NAME>, has written an app
    available from the 
    <a href="https://market.android.com/details?id=com.android.fixmystreet">Android Market</a>.
    <li><em>Nokia:</em> A volunteer, <NAME>, has written an app available from the
    <a href="http://store.ovi.com/content/107557">Ovi Store</a>.
    </ul>
    </dd>

    </dl>

    <h2><a name="practical"></a>Practical Questions</h2>
    <dl>
        <dt>Do you remove silly or illegal content?</dt>
        <dd>FixMyStreet is not responsible for the content and accuracy
of material submitted by its users. We reserve the right to edit or remove any
problems or updates which we consider to be inappropriate upon being informed
by a user of the site.</dd>

    <dt>Why does the site use kilometres for measurements?</dt>
    <dd>Thanks for asking politely &ndash; we never quite understand why some of the rudest
    emails we receive are on this topic. The British national
    grid reference system, devised by Ordnance Survey (the British national
    mapping agency) around the time of the second world war, uses eastings and
    northings measured in metres and kilometres; the maps we use are from
    Ordnance Survey and so this is what we use to display distances.
    There you have it: not everything British is in miles!</dd>

    <dt>Why can&rsquo;t I zoom out more on the reporting map?</dt>
    <dd>We want to keep FixMyStreet locally focused, so restrict the ability to
    move radically between areas. The map on Your Reports will let you see all
    the reports you&rsquo;ve made, wherever they are. If you&rsquo;re from the
    council then the emailed version of the problem report also contains the
    closest road and postcode to the pin on the map.</dd>

    <dt>This site is great – why aren&rsquo;t you better publicised?</dt>
    <dd>As a tiny charity we simply don&rsquo;t have a publicity budget, and we
    rely on word of mouth to advertise the site. We have a whole <a
    href="posters/">array of posters, flyers and badges</a> if you&rsquo;d like
    to publicise us on the web or in your local area, and why not write to your
    local paper to let them know about us?</dd> </dl>
    
    <h2><a name="organisation"></a>Organisation Questions</h2>
    <dl>
        <dt>Who built FixMyStreet?</dt>
        <dd>This site was built by <a href="http://www.mysociety.org/">mySociety</a>,
        in conjunction with the <a href="http://www.youngfoundation.org.uk/">Young Foundation</a>.
mySociety is the project of a registered charity which has grown out of the community of
volunteers who built sites like <a href="http://www.theyworkforyou.com/">TheyWorkForYou.com</a>. 
mySociety&rsquo;s primary mission is to build Internet projects which give people simple, tangible
benefits in the civic and community aspects of their lives. Our first project
was <a href="http://www.writetothem.com/">WriteToThem</a>, where you can write to any of your
elected representatives, for free. The charity is called UK Citizens Online Democracy and is charity number 1076346. mySociety 
can be contacted by email at <a href="mailto:hello&#64;mysociety.org">hello&#64;mysociety.org</a>,
or by post at mySociety, 483 Green Lanes, London, N13 4BS, UK.</dd>
        <dt><img src="/i/moj.png" align="right" alt="Ministry of Justice" hspace="10">Who pays for it?</dt>
        <dd>FixMyStreet was originally paid for via the Department for
        Constitutional Affairs Innovations Fund. It is now funded by a variety of means, from commercial
        work to <a href="http://www.mysociety.org/donate/">donations</a>.</dd>
        <dt><a name="nfi"></a>Wasn&rsquo;t this site called Neighbourhood Fix-It?</dt>
        <dd>Yes, we changed the name mid June 2007. We decided
Neighbourhood Fix-It was a bit of a mouthful, hard to spell, and hard to publicise (does the URL have a dash in it or not?). The domain FixMyStreet became available, and everyone liked the name.</dd>
        <dt>Do you need any help with the project?</dt>
        <dd>Yes, we can use help in all sorts of ways, technical or
non-technical.  Please see our <a
href="http://www.mysociety.org/helpus/">Get Involved page</a>.</dd>
        <dt>I&rsquo;d like a site like this for my own location/ where&rsquo;s the "source code" to this site?</dt>
        <dd>
The software behind this site is open source, and available
to you mainly under the GNU Affero GPL software license. You can <a
href="http://github.com/mysociety/fixmystreet">download the
source code</a> and help us develop it.
You&rsquo;re welcome to use it in your own projects, although you must also
make available the source code to any such projects.
<a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">Fiksgatami</a> is an example of our code
being used in a Norwegian version of this site.
</dd>
<dt>I&rsquo;d prefer code in a different language?</dt>
<dd>
VisibleGovernment.ca wrote their own code for
<a href="http://www.fixmystreet.ca/">http://www.fixmystreet.ca/</a>, which is
written in GeoDjango and available under an MIT licence at <a
href="http://github.com/visiblegovernment/django-fixmystreet/tree/master">github</a>.
Or <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.org.nz/">FixMyStreet.org.nz</a> is written in
Drupal.
</p>
</dd>
        <dt>People build things, not organisations. Who <em>actually</em> built it?</dt>
        <dd><NAME> and <NAME> wrote the site,
<NAME> wrote the tileserver and map cutter, <NAME> created
our pins, <NAME> keeps things up-to-date and does user support,
<NAME> designed our posters, and <NAME> managed it all.

Thanks also to
<a href="http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk">Ordnance Survey</a> (for the maps,
UK postcodes, and UK addresses &ndash; data &copy; Crown copyright, all
rights reserved, Ministry of Justice 100037819&nbsp;2008),
Yahoo! for their BSD-licensed JavaScript libraries, the entire free software
community (this particular project was brought to you by Perl, PostgreSQL,
and the number 161.290) and <a
href="http://www.bytemark.co.uk/">Bytemark</a> (who kindly host all
our servers).

Let us know if we&rsquo;ve missed anyone.</dd>
    </dl>
[% INCLUDE 'footer.html' pagefooter = 'yes' %]

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