Laois County Council to launch redesigned website

Laois County Council is going to launch a redesign of its website next year. 

However, the council doesn’t see the need to launch an app that would issue alerts as requested by a councillor. 

Fine Gael Cllr Barry Walsh had tabled a motion asking: “That Laois County Council consider using an alert app such as Map Alerter to  communicate with local residents about service disruptions, public safety messages and  important updates.” 

Cllr Walsh said a similar app is used by Kilkenny County Council and it issues public safety text messages to users. He said he didn’t believe there was a cost involved and said not everyone is using social media. 

A written response to the motion was read by Director of Services Donal Brennan.

“The Council at the moment uses a range of social media and its own website to publish public messages related to the work of the Council. Next year the Council intends to launch a redesign of its website which will further improve communications with the public,” he said.   

“We are aware of some companies who claim to offer additional geographical targeting; however these proprietary systems typically demand that people subscribe to their service and are not available to non-subscribers.  It is considered that the needs of the Council and the general public are better served by using more standard platforms and the website.”

Independent Cllr James Kelly said he fully supported the motion. He said it would be helpful if  Uisce Eireann/Irish Water could engage with it. 

Fine Gael Cllr Conor Bergin said such an app alert service would be useful, particularly in light of recent severe weather events. 

He said one single official reliable source of information would be useful.