Why we are giving free access to Local authorities amid COVID-19

As extraordinary pressure is put on our local authorities to deliver essential services, we’ve opened up the Commonplace platform to Local Authorities (LAs) and community groups in the UK.

It is now easy to setup a Commonplace project to act as a central point where views can be collected. Local communities will be able to access important information and have their say. Crucially it will help all parties concerned to share views and ideas effectively and at no cost.

To sign up for free, please use this link.

We find ourselves in a national and international emergency that is throwing up extraordinary and diverse needs in all areas of our community and government.

The situation we now find ourselves in means connecting communities is more important than ever and the work local authorities are doing is both important and heroic. 

Commonplace is able to help. Because of the way our platform works, we are in the fortunate position of being able to offer assistance to local authorities and community groups.

With people self isolating, connecting communities safely and digitally is crucial. That is why we have made the Commonplace platform free to use for local authorities looking to tackle the challenges associated with COVID-19. Here are some of the interesting ways local authorities have started using our platform during this time:

• Travel for critical workers – Mersey Travel  is using Commonplace to understand where critical workers live and co-ordinate services to get them to and from their place of work.

• Liveable streets – With less traffic comes higher speeds, we are working with a local authority to use our heatmap and identify locations that need traffic calming measures during the crisis.

• Social distancing in recovery - looking to life after lockdown, we have built a Commonplace platform to crowdsource ideas on how to enable social distancing for cycling and walking as it becomes a key part in how we commute.

• Community response page – We have put together a template for local authorities to quickly upload useful information and help local residents during the lockdown.

We realise the need for flexibility and therefore we would love to hear your ideas about how we can improve this template further and so help you reach out to your local community.

We are also facilitating online public consultation webinars for our customers and partners to help them run business as usual during these testing times. If you'd like to learn more, please arrange a meeting with one of our team here.

How you can get access to Commonplace?

If you work in a Local Authority or for a community group or know someone who does, please follow these instructions:

• Go to https://www.commonplace.is/covid-sign-up
• Please use your work email address associated with your Local Authority to signup.
• One of our team members will then be in contact with you to help set up a license and start your onboarding process.

We believe, in this uncertain time, it has never been more important to connect with and engage your local communities. This offer is our attempt to help as best we can.

The Commonplace team