Here’ Dan Drillsma-Milgrom of the LGC on how Councillors should respond to the heavy snow that we’re seeing in the UK at the moment:

A snowflake earlier.

“For those who know to look for it, Camden has an easy to use section of its website that directs residents to the nearest sand grit bins and shows the gritting routes. It should be the job of local politicians to let residents know such services exist so they can help themselves and their neighbours. That may be via email or social media, but if it means knocking on doors or delivering informative leaflets then so be it.”

I’m not sure that he’s right to be upset that his local political parties leaflets have totally dried up because of the bad weather, but times like this show why it’s important that Councillors invest in building communications channels with local residents.

My kids’ school has done a great job building up such a network with the parents. There’s a school website, a PTA website,  and – most importantly – a text-messaging system that they’ve used to deliver the good news that I have to spend at least the next two days at home looking after my kids. Tellingly, there is also a totally bloody-awful proprietary system with wretched usability called Fronter that the local authority seem to have imposed upon them.

This tells Councillors something: Set up your own communications networks – they’ll be much better than the clunky bossy rule-ridden ones that your Councils will saddle you with. Most of them are free, and most of them can be set up by anyone who has enough expertise to buy a book from Amazon.

Update: 14:58 – The distribution of grit has been taken out of the hands of local government.