Twitter is a social networking site which allows users to post, or ‘tweet', a message of up 140 characters which is then mailed to subscribers, or ‘followers', of the author's updates.
The launch of Cherwell's Twitter page comes two weeks after Warwickshire county council launched an application for iPhone users which gives the location of household waste and recycling centres in the region (see letsrecycle.com story).
Councillor George Reynolds, Cherwell's portfolio holder for environment, recreation and health, said: “Until now, if there was a problem with refuse collections, we could only alert people through local radio stations or news websites, including our own.
“This, of course, assumes that people have access to either a radio or a computer which is often not the case. But most people now have mobile phones which many use to access social networking sites, including Twitter.”
The council has already joined Twitter for its general news updates and its sports and recreation department are also joining Facebook to detail activities across the district.
Explaining the reason behind adopting the use of social networking, the council pointed to a ‘Twitter Gritters' report published last month by the Society of Information Technology Management (Socitm).
The association – which represents IT professionals in the public and third sectors -highlighted the role that Twitter played in keeping residents alert to the impact of the adverse weather conditions.
Martin Greenwood, programme manager at Socitm Insight, said: “It is good to see councils like Cherwell district council adopting this practice. Councils are making increasing use of Twitter and other social networks to get their message out to the local community.”
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