Wiltshire Council has a team of in-house developers currently working on a replacement for the MyWilts app, which is scheduled for release in the summer of 2024.

The current app used to report issues across the county is the second iteration of MyWilts.

This version was undertaken by Microsoft and became available for download in 2020.

However, residents have expressed frustrations with its functionality, in particular with the reporting of potholes, which remain the most frequent issue reported on MyWilts.

In the Environment Select Committee meeting on Wednesday, March 20, attendees were presented with a report on the future of the application.

This document reported that the council had received “significant complaints with regard to pothole cases being closed without a clear reason being given why this was the case.”

Councillor Ashley O’Neill, Cabinet Member for Governance, IT, Broadband, Digital, Licensing, and Staffing, said: “I think, if we are honest, we’re not where we want to be with the MyWilts app.”

He listed the two overall issues as being technical problems with its functioning and how the reported cases are managed.

He added: “We know things are not ideal.”

Councillor O’Neill went on to say that a replacement version was being developed to replace the current MyWilts app, which is due to be released in the summer of 2024.

He said: “Aside from some recent fixes to try to improve some of that communication and some of those technical issues within the app, most of the work that we’ve been putting in recently has been around developing a replacement app to address the issues that we’ve got.”

He noted that the work was “enormously complex” but stated that he was hopeful that the outcome would be “much better.”

The report presented to councillors said: “MyWilts as currently built comprises three code bases, one each for the web version, the Apple smartphone version and the Android smartphone version.

“Continuing to update these three code bases is an inefficient use of ICT development teams’ time and due to this and the legacy design and technical issues with the current MyWilts application, ICT have decided to cease further enhancement to the current MyWilts and create a brand-new replacement for the MyWilts application.”

Councillor O’Neill concluded: “What we are determined to do is to deliver an app that does meet expectations and takes away all of those current frustrations.”