By Lilia Guan
Lane Cove Council’s general manager, Craig Wrightson told Government News, it has released an iPhone application to help local residents find more car parking spaces in the shopping centre at Lane Cove Village.
The idea for the app came off the back of the council’s initial attempts to install a sign at the entrance of the car park.
Mr Wrightson said the council realised that there were multiple entrances to the car park at the shopping centre and not everyone would see the sign.
“We had prepared a map for the shopping centre to use and then we decided to make it available online,” he said.
“The council then decided to integrate the two ideas.”
Mr Wrightson said the council hired applications developer, iProgrammer to write the software for the app – to the council’s specifications.
“We chose iProgrammer through a quotation process,” he said.
“The council paid for the $6000 it took to develop the app, but that cost is only one fifth of the cost of providing additional car parking spaces. The app will help residents plan their shopping trip and maximise all parking spots available.”
Mr Wrightson said he consulted with Lane Cove Live, a community group which looks at promoting the local shopping village.
“There was no negative feedback from us developing the app,” he said.
“We will look at creating more apps in the future which the council can use to further service the community.
“An iPhone always knows where you are and can provide location-based services like notification of road closures and upcoming events.”
Mr Wrightson – who looks after IT, HR and finance within the council – said the only comments the council received was people asking when an Android version will be developed.
“We are currently looking at creating a web-version for all phones,” he said.
“If that’s a success then we will look at creating an Android version.”
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