By Dongyun Kwon
Yarra Ranges Council claimed victory in the Inclusive Excellence Award at the Snap Send Solve’s 2024 Solver of the Year Awards.
The award is presented to the council and organisation that has solved the most accessibility-related reports, such as damaged footpaths and overgrown vegetation.
Snap Send Solve is a free app which allows users to identify and report issues to the relevant responsible authority.
Snap Send Solve chief executive officer Danny Gorog said he came up with the idea for the app in 2010 after visiting a playground with his son when he couldn’t find an easy way to contact the right people for the broken swing.
“Since then, we’ve done lots of versions of the app. One of the big learnings was that we realised it wasn’t just local councils who are responsible for the stuff in our community shared spaces,” he said.
“So, we’ve added all of the different solvers (organisations) into the network, and then we’ve slowly iterated over time.”
“It’s a really important tool because it democratises issue reporting. It makes it easy and quick.”
In 2024, over 1.5 million community issues were reported in Australia, alongside 139,676 in New Zealand via Snap Send Solve, and nearly 90 per cent of the issues were resolved.
Here’s how to report issues through Snap Send Solve:
1. Download the Snap Send Solve app on either Google Play or App Store
2. Sign up with an email address
3. Log into the app and click the camera icon on the toolbar at the bottom.
4. Take a photo of the issue, confirm the location and select the incident type
5. Type descriptions of the issue and press send
Yarra Ranges Council spokesperson said the council receives approximately 210,000 customer service enquiries and requests each year, with about 3 per cent being reported via the third party Snap Send Solve app.
“A key part of the council’s commitment to our community is responding to any issues or enquiries as promptly as possible to ensure safe and accessible facilities and assets for our community,” they said.
