Digital Use of Mapping During Covid-19 Pandemic

2020 has been a strange and difficult year for everyone as we’ve all had to get used to a new normal. While some people have adapted more easily than others, it has been great to see the community coming together to help their neighbours.

As a local authority, we have been uniquely positioned to be able to signpost to various community groups or businesses that can help during this transition period. However, just having a list of the information uploaded to our website wouldn’t have been the most user-friendly approach.

Instead, we have broken the borough of Ashford – the largest geographically in Kent – into its’ 39 wards to allow users to see what help is available, specific to their local area. We feel this has provided information to users in a much more useful way.

This approach has been used for directing residents to volunteer groups and food businesses through our website.

The following video was produced by Ashford Borough Council and showcases how we used maps to help our residents and businesses in the borough, as well as how it was utilised internally to help us identify areas of the borough that needed more support than others.