Wicklow County recognises the value of providing relevant and timely information to the citizens of County Wicklow. In an effort to keep the public informed of emergency situations that inevitably occur from time to time and have an impact on our day to day lives, the Council has developed a short messaging service (SMS) ‘Text Alerts’ for a range of County Council areas. Beneficial information on severe weather alerts, emergency road works and closures, instances of flooding and planned water disruptions can be communicated through SMS.
Members of the public are invited to sign up to receive alerts based on geographic location, i.e. the five Municipal District areas of Bray, Greystones, Arklow, Wicklow and Baltinglass. This means that timely text alerts will be audience specific and content relevant. The text alert initiative has been developed with the end user in mind and is designed to improve the quality and reach of important and relevant information from the Council to the consumer in the following areas:-
- Emergency road works and closures including scheduled road works, fuel spills and diversion advice
- Weather warnings in conjunction with Met Eireann to include adverse/severe weather updates, location of fallen trees and areas where traffic signals are out
- Instances of flooding
- Planned disruption to public water supply in conjunction with Irish Water
- General alerts advising of change in opening times and bathing water alerts
- Community notices in relation to public consultations processes such as Local Area Plans, the Local Property Tax and Council events
Communications through each of these channels are subject to appropriate Privacy & Data Protection policies.
Details of registration as Data Controller/Data Processor are available on the Online Register of the Data Protection Commission under Reference 0538/A