It’s now December and icy roads, closed schools and uncollected bins tend to dominate local government over the coming months. Residents rush to council websites seeking to report problems and find information. Increasingly, there is an expectation for this data to be real time.
So what should councils be doing?
Take part in LGiU’s 2-minute ‘communicating through the winter months’ survey
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Once you have completed the survey you will be able to see the results of all participants so far.
In LGiU’s recent report Going where the eyeballs are, a popular section was on the necessarily chaotic nature of communications during special and/or specific events.
Featured was a case study on the BwD Winter Facebook page – a dedicated space to keep residents informed about the effects the cold weather was having on local services. The council estimates this to have prevented 8,000 phone calls and saved £10,000. LGiU outlined a recommended system – see p27. But what do you think?
Local government has a responsibility for updating residents, media, voluntary organisations and private sector companies during these special situations. Which tools do you think are most effective?
Follow this link to take part in the survey
We will leave the survey up over the week and produce a write-up of the results – hopefully before any snow starts falling! Sign up here to get the analysis sent straight to your inbox.
