Sign up for free texts about service interruptions in your area

Residents in the Goondiwindi region can now sign up to receive free SMS text alerts about service interruptions and other important messages that will affect them.

Goondiwindi Regional Council is providing the service to alert subscribed residents about situations that will affect their residential area, such as unexpected interruptions to water and waste services.

The new service is a bid to help to streamline communication between Council and its residents. Council’s Director of Community and Corporate Services Jason Quinnell said the service would be personalised to the user’s specific address, so they will only receive alerts that are relevant to their residential area.

“That way you’ll receive a short text message to your mobile when it’s a situation that will affect you directly – like an unplanned water outage to a certain street,” Mr Quinnell said.

The new service may also be used for topics that typically generate multiple enquiries to Council’s Customer Service Centres.

“A good example of this recently would have been the smoke that came over the region from the Stanthorpe fires,” Mr Quinnell said. “Council was inundated with phone calls from people concerned about the smoke and whether there was a fire close by.

“The SMS service will help us to get a message out quickly into the community, at minimal cost.”

Mr Quinnell said he wanted to reassure people that the new SMS service would not be a replacement of the emergency alert system that is used in situations of natural disaster. “That system is controlled by the Queensland Government and is completely separate,” he confirmed.

“Council’s new SMS service will complement our existing communication channels – residents will continue to receive notifications in the usual way, this is just an additional tool from Council,” he said.

The SMS service will only be used for high priority Council matters or situations that directly impact the resident - so users do not have to worry about spam messages. Subscription is free and residents can unsubscribe at any time if they change your mind.

“Hopefully our proactive approach will help our residents to work around the situation at hand and make any alternative arrangements as quickly as possible.”

• Sign up for free text alerts online at www.grc.qld.gov.au/SMS.

For more information, please contact:

Councillor Graeme Scheu

Mayor

Goondiwindi Regional Council

Mobile: 0427 718 877

Email: mayor@grc.qld.gov.au