Scotland's national public information notices portal has begun to include information on councillor surgeries.
TellMeScotland, run by the Improvement Service, has added a section for the information as the fifth category of its content. It already has categories for general, licensing, planning and traffic notices
Argyll and Bute Council has become the first to deploy the new service, with changes in its digital systems and processes to facilitate the automatic data transfer.
The councillor surgery notices detail the ward name, number and local authority; the date, time and location; and which councillor will be in attendance.
The Improvement Service – the agency supporting local government in Scotland – said it hopes the move will support local democracy in Scotland and allow constituents to be directly notified where and when surgeries are arranged by email or by text message.
The TellMeScotland website was launched in December 2010 and now includes information from 31 councils and 21 wider public sector organisations. Site traffic has grown by around 50% each year, with over 300,000 live and archived notices and 775,000 annual page views.
