Oxfordshire residents to get free, emergency incendent texts

THE county council has teamed up with a software company to issue free emergency warnings to the public via text messages.
Residents can sign up to a text message server operated by Avanquest, to receive messages warning them about incidents such as major traffic disruptions, details of evacuation centres or even terrorist incidents.

The text messaging service, due to ‘go live’ next week, will not include information about flooding, as this is a service provided by The Environment Agency.

Improving existing system

Oxfordshire County Council has been using text messaging as a means of communication since 2003. The partnership with Avanquest will enable the original systems to be replaced with a text message server.

John Kelly, Emergency Planning Officer at Oxfordshire County Council said: ?We reviewed the use of our existing system and decided it could be improved by introducing the Avanquest text solution.

?We believe it is vital that we can give warning to the public and alert our staff though text messaging. The advantage of the Avanquest solution is that it is free to the public. The small cost of our existing system per year to the public has hindered take up.”

How to sign up
To sign up to the service send a text message to 07797 870610, leaving your own mobile phone number, your address and postcode. To register further mobile numbers for the service, you will need to send further text messages.