London councils adopt crisis messaging system
Kablenet.com
Published: 13 Dec 2007 10:50 GMT
An emergency communication system which will help local people and services during a crisis has been rolled out by two London authorities.
Two south London boroughs have adopted a new service called "Warn and Inform" to help them to communicate with the local community and council staff in the event of a major incident.
Lewisham and Croydon have bought the Warn and Inform secure messaging service, which enables the councils to send emergency voicemails, SMS text messages, pager messages and emails to residents, schools or local businesses.
The system will also be used to ensure up-to-date information gets through to council staff and the emergency services tackling incidents.
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Sir Steve Bullock, mayor of Lewisham, said on Wednesday: "In any major incident, the council aims to keep services running. To achieve this, it is vital that both the emergency services and local authorities are able to keep people informed at all times."
"It is essential that we are able to communicate with residents, businesses and staff, to help keep them informed and updated about events as they occur. Warn and Inform gives us another tool to use when there are floods, fires and gas leaks," Bullock continued.
The system is already being used by a number of other local authorities, including the City of London, Bristol, Cardiff, Liverpool and Manchester.
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