AreaConnectYour branch, organised around WhatsApp.
AreaConnect gives your branch one place for its ward teams, volunteers and residents. It starts with the WhatsApp groups and channels you already use.
Works on any phone. Nothing to install: add it to your home screen like an app.
Start simple. Switch on more when your team is ready.
Most branches already run on WhatsApp. AreaConnect builds on that instead of replacing it.
Set up your wards
We load your council's wards and county divisions from official boundaries. Every ward gets a team room and its own flyer QR code that leads to its WhatsApp channel.
Bring your people in
Share one join link. Volunteers, candidates and councillors ask to join their ward, and the chairman approves them with one tap.
Add the extras
When the team is comfortable, the chairman switches on events, resident messages, ward news and ward profiles, one at a time.
Every extra has an on/off switch.
New tools can overwhelm a volunteer team. With AreaConnect, the branch chairman decides what everyone sees. Anything switched off disappears completely, so people only learn what they need.
- Team messages and WhatsApp links are always on
- One tick switches a feature on for every ward in the branch
- Switch it off again at any time and nothing is lost
Everything a branch needs, ward by ward
Team rooms Core
A room for every ward and one for the branch, plus private messages. Messages arrive instantly, and private ones stay private, even from the chairman.
Flyer QR codes Core
Each ward gets a QR code for leaflets. Residents scan it and follow the ward's WhatsApp channel: one-way, and followers can't see each other.
Join and approve Core
People find their ward by postcode and ask to join as a volunteer, candidate or councillor. The chairman approves them, and the request is deleted after 30 days.
Events and maps Extra
Canvassing sessions, leaflet drops and meetings. Set how many people you need, see who's going, pin the meeting point and share it to WhatsApp.
Resident messages Extra
Residents message their ward privately. Each message is sorted by topic and council, urgent ones are flagged first, and county issues pass to the division councillor in one tap.
Ward news Extra
New planning applications in each ward, checked daily, plus council fly-tipping figures and what residents raised. Tick items and it writes your channel post.
Ward profiles Extra
Crime inside the ward boundary, deprivation, Census figures, schools, house prices, rents and past election results, with talking points for the doorstep.
County divisions
County councils sit alongside district wards. Each division is linked to the wards it overlaps, so events and messages reach the right teams.
Secure by design
Every request is checked against the person's role, two-step login is available, and an audit log records logins, role changes and deletions.
One login. Each person sees their part.
Each branch gets its own web address, such as yourbranch.areaconnect.uk. What someone sees after logging in depends on their role.
Chairman
The whole branch: every ward, people, join requests, settings and feature switches.
Coordinator
Plans events, invites people and joins the team rooms in their wards.
Candidate
Their ward's team, events and private messages from residents.
Volunteer
Their ward's room and events. Never sees residents' details.
Built to keep residents' details safe
Political data needs care. AreaConnect collects as little as it can and shows it only to the people who need it.
- Residents' messages go only to their ward's candidate or councillor, never to volunteers
- A councillor's casework stays private to them and isn't shared with the branch
- Deleting a closed enquiry deletes the resident's details too
- The chairman sees how many enquiries each ward has, not what they say
- Passwords are stored scrambled and can't be read by anyone, including us
Register your branch
Tell us about your branch and we'll be in touch to set it up. We load your wards, give you your branch's own web address, and help you get your first ward channel running.
- Set up for you, with your wards and divisions loaded
- Start with WhatsApp and the join link, then add more
- Your branch's own web address for the whole team