Keep in touch with council via new smartphone app

Council has launched Antenno, a free mobile app that allows residents to raise issues with council, and be alerted to council service-related things going on in their neighbourhood.

People and partnerships group manager Janice McDougall said Antenno will make it easier for Ka¯ piti residents to stay up-to-date and connect with the council using their smartphones.

“Antenno provides a new way for local residents to connect with the council on their terms.

“Residents can send and receive council-related information straight from their phone, so they don’t have to scroll through newsfeeds to find out what’s going on.

“They can choose the places they want to be alerted about, so they only get information for the locations they care about.

“This might include their street, place of work, or where their kids go to school.”

Notifications from council will include information about road works, major water outages, pool and library closures, council events, consultations, and rates payment and dog registration reminders.

“You can tailor the alerts to the different places you’ve added, and you can opt out of topics that aren’t of interest to you.

“For example, if you don’t have a dog, you can choose not to receive dog registration reminders.”

Janice said another key feature of the app is the ability for residents to raise issues with the council directly from their smartphones.

“The app prompts you to enter all the information we need to action a service request with the added benefit of being able to upload a photo and geographical location.

“This is a significant step forward for our council as it means people can report issues such as graffiti in public places that needs to be removed or a tree down on the Waikanae River track in real time from their smartphones.”

If residents want to alert council to urgent issues outside of working hours (Monday to Friday 8am-5pm), they’ll need call 0800 486 486 so council can respond immediately.

Otherwise, their enquiry will be processed on the next business day.

Twelve other councils around the country are already using Antenno to connect with their communities.

The app is free and available to download now through the App Store or Google Play.

For more information about Antenno, visit www.kapiticoast.govt.nz/antenno.