Tweet for news of any bad weather disruption

Residents who follow Bolton Council on the social networking site are also being encouraged to alert the authority with information on roads or any other services in their area of the borough that are affected by adverse weather conditions.

Any information will then be re-tweeted by the council to its followers.

The council’s feed on the social networking site — at twitter.com/boltoncouncil — currently has more than 550 followers, all of whom will be able to find out up-to-theminute information on what roads are gritted, what schools are open, and whether their bin collections are affected in the event of bad weather. Information available through the feed will also including any changes to social care arrangements, whether council buildings such as libraries need to be shut, and whether any car parks are closed.

Cllr Linda Thomas, Bolton Council’s Executive member for corporate resources, said: “While we are hopeful that we won’t see a repeat of last year’s weather conditions it is crucial that the public are able to get information on key council services as quickly as possible, and the council’s Twitter feed will help to do that.

“Should we experience snow or extremely cold weather, I would advise residents or anyone visiting Bolton to make sure they are signed up to the Twitter feed to get the latest on the issues that will affect their daily lives this winter.”

The special winter alerts will be delivered alongside the usual council tweets through the same feed, and will enable residents and visitors to the town to find out if there are certain routes best avoided or whether their child’s school has to close while they are on the move. Information will still appear on the council’s website and through all local media channels, but Twitter will enable followers to find snippets of information that affect their days at their finger tips.

To sign up, log onto twitter.

com/boltoncouncil and click the “follow” icon.