Londoners get mobile app to help keep city clean ahead of 2012 Olympics

With the 2012 Olympics looming large on the horizon, Londoners can now download a free app for their smartphones which lets them send images and information to their local councils about any aesthetic problems in their neighbourhood such as graffiti or litter.

The app, called Love Clean London, was first trialled by Lewisham council, where it was invented, but is now available to use across the entire city for Apple, Android, Windows Phone or BlackBerry smartphones.

Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, welcomed the app warmly as he looks to ensure the capital will be gleaming when the world's sports lovers and media descend in their droves for the 2012 Olympics.

"Eyesores such as litter, graffiti and fly-tipping are a real blight on our environment. It also costs boroughs millions to clear up the mess of a small number of irresponsible individuals," he said.

"Love Clean London gives people an easy way to report a discarded mattress or an outbreak of graffiti, helping their boroughs to direct finite resources where they are most needed."

The creation of such an app underlines the ways in which smartphone technology is changing the interaction between government by taking advantage of the age of instant information, be that images, text or GPS data.

Furthermore, the cost savings are impressive, with Lewisham claiming that reports sent through the app costs them £1.50 to handle, in comparison to a web-based report costing £4.10 and a verbal report by phone at a whopping £5.10.

We downloaded the application for a Windows Phone 7 device and found it easy to use and impressively detailed.

You can launch the camera within the application and rotate the photo once snapped in the app, and then add a list of data to the photo including a topic that covers the problem  from a detailed list preinstalled on the app such as 'Recycling' or 'Graffiti'.

You can also add detailed map data using Bing maps (or the equivalent for the relevant platform) and keep a record of the reports you have logged, so you can check to see if your report has been acted upon.

While it's easy to deride government IT at the central and local levels, initiatives like this that react smartly to the growing pervasiveness of smartphones in order to empower users and improve services while reducing costs, must be applauded.

10 Mar 2011