May 16, 2011-- Wycombe District Council has gone live with a new online mapping and information service supplied by Astun Technology. ‘My Wycombe’ enables local residents to use their Postcode or part address to find information about local services, locate facilities on maps and even sign up for automated email alerts. ‘My Wycombe’ provides information about councillors, next bin collections, new planning applications in the vicinity and much more.

The ‘My Wycombe’ facility comes courtesy of iShare, a software platform from Epsom based, Astun Technology. iShare is designed to provide public access to information via a Council’s website and is in use with over thirty Local Authorities in England and Wales. It uses a citizen’s address to link information pulled from a Council’s service delivery systems making it possible to do ‘my nearest’ searches, and find information on local facilities and services.

A fully featured mapping facility is also built in. The map, centred on the resident’s address is capable of displaying multiple layers of information, making it easy to carry out searches in a more intuitive way.  iShare’s ‘My Property’ facility not only gives summary information drawn from the Council’s data such as bin collection dates, council tax and planning applications but also links to external data like NHS services, for the chosen location. The ‘My Alerts’ facility enables a resident to register to receive automatic email alerts when new planning applications occur nearby, more alert options, such as changes to bin collections, will be available soon.

"The new ‘My Wycombe’ service is part of Wycombe District Council’s commitment to improving customer service,” said John McMillan, Head of Human Resources, ICT and Customer Services at the Council. “By putting information online, it means that local residents can browse for information at their own convenience and find out about the services that we provide and how they relate to their property.  Signing up for alerts will make it even easier, because we will notify residents about changes to information and services as they occur,” continued John McMillan.

“By encouraging residents to use their website to find out about services, Wycombe District Council is promoting the convenience of the web whilst improving access to its services.  Encouraging residents to register for the ‘My Alerts’ facility goes one step further enabling the Council to push information directly to those who wish to receive it in this way. This is just the start of the way we think Local Government will be operating in the future, and we are delighted to be facilitating the process, with our iShare platform,” said Mike Saunt Managing Director of Astun Technology.

The My Wycombe service is available from http://www.wycombe.gov.uk