Software package

Neighbourhood portal package

A neighbourhood portal where residents verified by address post on street and area noticeboards, find local businesses and events, join private groups, vote in polls aimed at their streets and receive a weekly digest, with a moderation queue the committee runs, ready to configure around your streets.

Custom build Concept demo

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Who it is for

Built for

A good fit

Residents' associations, neighbourhood forums, tenants' and leaseholders' groups on larger estates, village and ward communities and local notice groups that want to replace a public social media group with something that belongs to the neighbourhood, from a few hundred homes with one moderator up to several thousand homes across a dozen areas with a small moderation team. Daily users are the portal administrator who keeps the street list and the categories, area moderators who handle reports for their patch, residents who post, reply, vote and read the digest, and local businesses that claim a listing and post offers within the rules.

Also worth knowing

It is less suited to groups that want an open public forum anyone can join, to clubs and societies whose members are not defined by where they live, and to organisations that need case management for the issues residents raise. The first is the problem the package replaces; the other two have their own packages.

The operational problem it solves

How it runs, step by step

A resident on a terrace of forty houses opens the portal on her phone at breakfast.

Her feed shows her street first: a neighbour has posted a lost tabby cat with a photo, two doors down someone is giving away a cot, and the area moderator has pinned an alert about a doorstep caller that the police feed supplied overnight.
She replies to the cot post, is told it has been claimed, and the post closes itself.
In the area tab there is a poll from the committee on the proposed one-way scheme; it is open only to the six streets the scheme affects, hers among them, so she votes and sees the running count for her street.

Across the neighbourhood, the area moderator for the north side checks the queue at lunchtime: three reports overnight.

One is a business advertising in the recommendations category rather than through its listing; he moves the post to the listing's offers and sends the standard note.
One is a heated reply on a planning post; he hides it, warns the resident and records the reason, and the warning joins the resident's moderation record which only moderators can see.
The third is a duplicate lost-cat post from the next street, which he merges with the first.
A café owner claims the listing the administrator imported from the street survey, uploads opening hours and a photo, and the claim waits for the business volunteer to review before it goes live.
On Friday afternoon the administrator assembles the digest: the week's alerts, the three events with sign-up, the poll results so far and two headlines from the local paper with links, sent to the nine hundred residents who opted in and printed as two sides for the ones who did not.

Features

What the package does

The package ships as modules that follow the life of a post: the membership layer of areas, accounts and verification, the noticeboard with its categories and replies, the directory layer of business listings and events, the community layer of groups and polls, the moderation queue with its log, and the outward digest. Each module below lists what it does; the comparison table shows which package variant includes it.

Accounts and permissions

Streets, areas and verified residentsA street and area model underpins resident accounts, which are verified by code, invitation or approval before they can post.

Content and editorial

Noticeboard by street and areaPosts are shared with a street, an area or the whole neighbourhood, filed under categories the committee defines, and can be set to expire.

Messaging and notifications

Replies, photos and closing of postsNeighbours reply and attach photos, and the poster closes a post once it is resolved, such as a claimed giveaway.
Weekly email digestA weekly digest collects alerts, events and highlights and goes only to residents who opted in.

Scheduling

Events calendar with sign-upLocal events appear on a shared calendar and residents can sign up so organisers know who is coming.

Workflow and tasks

Reports, moderation queue and action logResidents report posts, moderators hide, warn or mute from a queue, and every action is written to a log for the committee.

Listings and search

Local business listingsLocal businesses claim a listing, which is reviewed before it goes live, and can post offers within the neighbourhood rules.

Memberships

Private groupsStreets, committees and interest groups get their own private space for discussion.

Forms and requests

Polls restricted by streetA poll can be aimed only at the streets it affects, with results the administrator can export.

Integrations

Imported news feeds and printable digestCouncil, police and local news feeds can arrive as notices and digest items, and a printable digest serves residents without email.

Roles and permissions

Who does what

Portal admin
- Maintain streets, areas, categories and their posting rules
- Issue verification codes and invitations and approve accounts against the street list
- Assemble and send the weekly digest
- Export poll results and the moderation log
Area moderator
- Work the report queue for their area: hide, warn, mute, merge or escalate
- Pin alerts and approve posts in pre-moderated categories
- See a resident's moderation record
- Review business listing claims where assigned
Resident
- Post and reply in the categories open to their street and area
- Vote in polls aimed at their streets
- Join private groups and sign up to events
- Report a post and choose digest and notification preferences
Local business
- Claim and maintain a listing with opening hours, photos and contact details
- Post offers to the listing within the rules
- See how many residents viewed the listing

Example screen

Concept demo

Concept demo of a neighbourhood portal moderation queue showing reported posts by category, suggested actions, previous warnings and pending business listing claims.

The area moderator's queue: reports grouped by post with the category, the reporting residents' streets, the suggested action and the resident's previous warnings, alongside pending business claims.

Scope and options

What is included and what is extra

In the base package

Street and area model with resident accounts verified by code, invitation or approval
Noticeboard by street, area and neighbourhood with committee-defined categories and expiry
Replies, photos and closing of resolved posts
Events calendar with sign-up
Reporting, moderation queue, warnings, muting and an action log
Weekly digest by email with an opt-in list

Common add-ons

Local business listings with claims, review and offers
Private groups for streets, committees and interests
Polls restricted by street with exportable results
Imported council, police and local news feeds as notices and digest items
Printable digest layout for residents without email

Needs custom work

Paid business listings with a payment provider and a treasurer workflow
Direct messaging between residents
Several verification methods per area or integration with an estate management register
Reporting for a neighbourhood plan or a funder in a prescribed format

See the custom development service

Ownership, maintenance and pricing

After the build

Deployment and ownership

The package runs on hosting the committee controls or on hosting we manage; the choice is made in the proposal and can change later. The organisation owns the code and its data in either case. Accounts with their verification records, posts, listings, poll results and the moderation log can be exported at any time in standard formats, and residents can download their own posts, so the neighbourhood is never locked into a provider or a platform.

Maintenance

Maintenance is optional and scoped separately from the setup. When taken, it covers security updates to the platform and its dependencies, monitoring of verification and digest sends, backups, and a monthly window for small configuration changes such as a new category, a redrawn area or an adjusted moderation step. Larger changes are quoted as change requests against the original scope.

Pricing model

Priced per proposal.

The package is sold as a one-off setup and configuration with optional monthly maintenance and hosting as separate recurring lines. The setup figure depends on the number of homes and areas, the verification method, the add-ons selected, whether an existing member list is imported and verified, and whether the committee hosts it. Your proposal states each line separately so recurring costs are never hidden in the setup.

Software package

Custom build Concept demo

Variants

Custom Platform : quote for this variant

Street and area model with resident accounts verified by code, invitation or approval
Noticeboard by street, area and neighbourhood with committee-defined categories and expiry
Replies, photos and closing of resolved posts
Events calendar with sign-up

Priced per proposal. A written proposal is the only binding figure.

Get a quote for this package Prefer a fully custom build?

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

How does a resident get verified?

The administrator chooses the method at setup: a code posted to the address, an invitation from a verified neighbour on the same street, or approval against the street list. The resident creates an account, enters the code or accepts the invitation, and the account records the method and date. Unverified accounts can read public notices but not post or vote.

Who sees a post?

The resident chooses street, area or neighbourhood when posting, within what the category allows. Alerts are usually neighbourhood-wide; recommendations and for-sale posts usually stay in the area. The committee sets those rules per category and can change them.

What can moderators do?

Hide a post, warn or mute a resident, merge duplicates, pin alerts and approve posts in pre-moderated categories. Every action is logged with the moderator, the reason and the date, and the resident is told what happened. The committee decides the escalation steps; the package records them.

Can businesses advertise?

With the listings add-on, a business within the area claims its listing, a volunteer reviews it, and offers are posted to the listing rather than the noticeboard. Posts that are really adverts can be moved to the listing by a moderator. Paid listings are custom work.

Can polls be used as evidence for a consultation?

A poll can be limited to the streets a scheme affects and its results exported with the verification method of each response. Whether a council or another body accepts that record is their decision; the package provides the record.

What about residents without email or a smartphone?

The digest add-on includes a printable layout for a volunteer to deliver, and a verified resident can be given a household account that a neighbour or relative helps them use. Verification by posted code works without any device.

Is this a finished product I can see running?

Not yet. The readiness badge on this page shows the real state: the package is currently a custom build assembled from our memberships, directory, messaging and forms modules for each neighbourhood, and the example screen is a labelled concept demo rather than a live portal. Requirements outside the listed options go through custom neighbourhood portal development.

Get a quote for Neighbourhood portal package

Tell us about your locations, the people who will use it and the add-ons you need. We reply with a clear, competitive proposal.