About 4Stratford

4Stratford is part of the Conservative party's commitment to the Post Bureaucratic Age through the opening up government data and increasing transparency. The aim of opening up data is so that members of the public can use it to inform their lives and ensure that government is doing the best for them.

The 4Stratford concept is a residents portal for Stratford-on-Avon constituents that brings together information from all levels of government (national, county and district) and presents it in an easy to understand and interact with form. However unlike most open government initiatives, which require a resident to go looking for new data or keep checking a website, 4Stratford takes a push approach. This approach allows users to register to receive SMS (text message) and email updates when something happens that is relevant to them. For example you may register to receive a text message when someone makes a planning application within a mile of your house, or to receive a text message when a burglary or mugging takes place within 5 miles of your home.

4Stratford has launched with planning information from Stratford District Council and is making the information accessible through both the web and via mobile phones using basic text messaging technology. In the future we'll be adding more data-sets to 4Stratford including crime mapping, education data, health information and revenue and expenditure information. We'll also be adding a feedback and question system allowing you to direct your questions directly to the correct official, be that the MP, your county councillor, district councillor or even parish councillor.


Frequently Asked Questions

Where does the planning data come from?
Planning data is publicly available data held by the District Council. The council makes this data available as a machine readable file that our systems read, analyse and then present to you.

How often is the data updated?
We poll the council's database every day, however there may be a delay in planning information being entered onto the system so it could take a few days for an application to register or for a status change to register.

I think the data on 4Stratford is wrong, what should I do?
In the first instance contact the District Council planning department, we are purely redisplaying their data. However you can also contact us at contact@4stratford.com

I'd like to see a certain type of data made available, will it be?
We're working with all levels of government to make more and more data available. If you have a specific request then let us know by emailing contact@4stratford.com and we'll see what we can do to make it available.