Get texting

Residents of Sevenoaks District can now receive free text updates about Council news and can also tell the Council by text message about grafitti in the District. Local people can subscribe easily by phone, by completing an online form or by text.

Residents will be able to receive regular updates about District-wide news or news that is localised to one of five areas. These are Sevenoaks Town and the surrounding areas, Edenbridge & Westerham, Swanley and surrounding areas, New Ash Green and surrounding areas and Leigh, Penshurst and Chiddingstone, Fordcombe & Hever. In addition, young people will be able to subscribe to get all the latest updates about upcoming SNAP nights.

Grafitti can also now be reported to the Council by text.

Cllr Peter Fleming, Cabinet Member with responsibility for IT, says: "This new texting service is a great way for people to stay in touch with what is happening in their area, all at no cost to them, and I would urge as many people as possible to subscribe. In addition to the regular news updates, the graffiti reporting line will give residents another quick and easy way of informing us of where there are problems in the District."

To subscribe to the text messaging service, call the Council on 01732 227000 or fill in the online form, available on the Council's website www.sevenoaks.gov.uk and go to 'Your Council', then 'Receive text message updates'.

Alternatively residents can send the following texts to 07799 732732 to join the following mailing lists.

JOIN DISTRICT - To subscribe to District-wide news

JOIN EDEN - To subscribe to news for Edenbridge & Westerham

JOIN SEV - To subscribe to news for Sevenoaks Town and the surrounding areas

JOIN SWAN - To subscribe to news for Swanley and surrounding areas

JOIN NAG - To subscribe to news for New Ash Green and the surrounding areas

JOIN CHID - To subscribe to news for Leigh, Penshurst and Chiddingstone,

Fordcombe & Hever

JOIN SNAP - To subscribe to news about upcoming SNAP nights

To report graffiti text GRAF to 07799 732732 with details of the location.

It is hoped that more text messaging services will be made available in the near future. Residents who have views on which messaging services could be added can e-mail their suggestions to sms@sevenoaks.gov.uk or text IDEA followed by your suggestion to 07799 732732.