Find out about your neighbourhood online

Sometimes it’s easy to miss what’s right under your nose.

While the web gives us a window on the wider world, it can also reveal much about your local community.

In this feature we’ll show you how to discover, access and benefit from the huge amount of information about your community that’s available online – all from the comfort of your own home.

As well as making day-to-day life a bit easier, the subject matter we’ll cover over the next few pages will give you the opportunity to get informed about and involved in the world immediately around you.

Local services
Let’s start with practical information about using local services. Tracking down contact information for specific departments at your local authority and getting in touch with them isn’t always as straightforward as we might like it to be.

Making contact needn’t, however, involve battling with frustrating telephone menu systems or holding the line until a member of staff can take a call. There’s plenty that can be arranged, booked or reported online and via email.

Got a big item such as a fridge that’s come to the end of its life? Arrange to have it collected by your local authority. Some councils charge a fee and others don’t, but details will be available on each authority’s website.

If you don’t know the website address of your local authority, or even if you’re not sure which local authority operates services in your area, track it down on the Directgov website using our step-by-step guide below ('Find your local authority's website'). Residents of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland should access the site for their region.

Any time you want to take a shortcut to the correct department at your local authority, the Directgov website can help. The key is to get to grips with the ‘Search this site’ tool in the top right-hand corner of most pages on the website.

Say you want to report an abandoned car in your neighbourhood. Type the words ‘abandoned car’ into the text box and either click on Go or press the Return button on the keyboard.

The Abandoned cars link at the top of the results returned by the search takes you to a web page that provides you with more information. Follow the links and the same postcode-based search will give you direct access to the relevant department at your local authority.

Try other keyword searches, too, such as ‘fly tipping’ to report dumped waste. Meanwhile, to report loutish behaviour in your area, head for the relevant page of the Home Office website to find the anti-social behaviour co-ordinator in your area.

If you’ve contacted the local authority about a problem in your area but are unsatisfied with the response, take it up with your MP. Locate them on Parliament's Findyourmp site. We’ll look at making your voice heard locally in more detail in an upcoming online feature.