www.tellmescotland.gov.uk – Benefits for Community Councils

• www.tellmescotland.gov.uk is Scotland’s online portal for Public Information Notices (PINs) and is supported by the Scottish Government and Scottish Councils. The portal is a useful tool for Community Councils as it provides a single online access point to a range of information from across the country that can be accessed by anyone at any time.

• The portal was launched in December 2010 and 28 of the 32 Scottish Councils and 18 wider Scottish public sector organisations are now using the portal to publish their PINs.

• Types of notices published on tellmescotland include road closures, planning or property developments, licensing and any other type of general public notices from Councils, including committee meetings, councillors’ surgeries and events notices. Information from wider public sector organisations is also available, such as advertising of public meetings/consultations, denotification of land use, publication of draft bills, audit reports, corporate plans, and invitations to comment on these documents.

• Users can quickly and easily search for current and archived notices and instantly see how they might be affected by public service developments in their local authority area, or any other part of Scotland. The national picture provided allows users to view notices along council boundaries and to see what is going on in other local authority areas across Scotland, a service not available on Councils’ own websites or in newspapers. A clear visual representation of the notice location is also available, with an interactive online map highlighting the areas or streets affected.

• Access and registration is free and there are real-time SMS and e-mail alerts available that will notify the user immediately as a notice is published that matches their predefined requirements (up to 6 postcodes can be registered, for example your home address, business address).

• The portal allows organisations to provide extra information beyond the statutory requirements, and far more detail than is available in newspapers, enhancing the public’s knowledge of notices. Where relevant, an attachment is also provided to a notice that gives more information i.e. a Traffic Order that shows where speed calming humps are located on a road. Each notice also includes the relevant contact details to find out more about or comment on a particular notice.

• The portal also provides a more coherent national picture of a whole journey through the ‘Route Notices’ function, highlighting how a series of street closures may impact on someone travelling through more than one local authority area.

• Tellmescotland provides a significant improvement in the accessibility and depth of information provided through local newspaper advertisements. These improvements, in turn, should lead to greater engagement and a higher level of response to public notices. Feedback received from Community Councils to date confirms the benefits that the portal offers.

• iOS and Androids Mobile Apps for the Portal have been released and these are available on the iPhone App Store and Android on Google Play. This is an exciting development which we hope will further enhance the user's experience of the site.

• For more information on tellmescotland please contact the PINs Project Team:
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