Local elections 2021: InYourArea partners with Democracy Club to launch election tools
We’re only weeks away from the largest round of local elections since 1973 — with 5,000 seats up for grabs across authorities all over England.
And that’s not even to mention the Parliamentary elections on the same day — Thursday May 6 — taking place in Wales and Scotland.
At InYourArea, Reach plc’s interactive neighbourhood platform, it has provided an opportunity for a new partnership to give everyone entitled to vote all over the UK tailored access to who is standing where.
A link-up with Democracy Club means InYourArea’s millions of users have the latest information about the elections available to them every day — and the postcode-driven tools are available for any other website to embed in their content too.
Democracy Club is a Community Interest Company in the UK which builds the digital infrastructure needed to help support a democratic way of life in the 21st Century.
The data which their army of 10,000 volunteers is gathering and checking is what powers InYourArea’s candidates checker tool.
This tool is also being used by InYourArea’s sister network of more than 40 national, local and regional news websites including the Mirror, Express, Manchester Evening News, Birmingham Live, WalesOnline, Bristol Post, MyLondon and many more. And it’s available, free, for other media to use too — just copy the embed code found in the ‘About My Area’ section of InYourArea to include it in your online coverage, or email tom.gibbon@reachplc.com to request it.
Democracy Club co-ordinator Sym Roe said: “Democracy Club believes that information about elections should be as easy to find as possible.
“This includes information about what elections are taking place, who will be on the ballot paper and where to vote.
“We are delighted that Reach are including this information to their readers on local papers and InYourArea.
“The information includes profiles on every candidate standing in all principal council, mayoral and national elections.
“This is collated by our network of volunteers and the candidates. These profiles allow voters to research who they want to vote for before they arrive at the ballot box.
“Our polling station information is provided by local authorities and is run in partnership with The Electoral Commission.”
InYourArea’s editor-in-chief Ed Walker said: “We’re really pleased to be able to work with Democracy Club to help make sure InYourArea’s users have the latest information about the election where they are.
“It’s the latest example of many strong partnerships we have in place to give communities across the UK the tools to connect with, champion and improve their areas.”
InYourArea’s existing collaborations include teaming up with Give Food to power an interactive tool which tells users where their nearest foodbank is and which items it is in most need of, and using FixMyStreet’s data to show people what locally reported issues — such as potholes — are currently active near them.
