Government has launched a new web page which brings together up-to-date information and advice relating to weather, traffic and travel in the Isle of Man. The service was introduced during the recent adverse conditions in order to provide a central resource for people seeking the latest news about road closures and disruption to bus and flight times. http://www.gov.im/travelupdates includes links to relevant weather and travel information, both within and outside the Isle of Man Government website. This new web page will make it more convenient, quicker and easier for people to access the information they need. The online centre also features live Twitter feeds from iombusandrail.info, the Department of Infrastructure, and the Department of Education and Children. It will complement the weather warnings, news bulletins and travel reports issued via the local media. The aim is to provide real-time updates in order to keep the travelling public informed about changing circumstances and to offer advice on planning their journeys. The initiative has been developed by the Chief Secretary’s Office after discussions with the Departments of Infrastructure, Education and Children, and Community, Culture and Leisure. Business Change Manager Daniel Davies said: ‘We were aware that Government provided lots of useful information about travel and weather disruption, but it was spread across a number of different web pages. We also knew that some Departments were starting to use Twitter as a way of giving out up-to-date information on the services we provide, and had received some good feedback on this. By making all the updates and guidance available in one place, as well as displaying the relevant Twitter feeds, we’ve created a useful resource for people which should prove very helpful in the event of snow and ice causing any further problems this winter. ‘We want to keep the Manx public as safe, secure and well-informed as possible when adverse weather causes disruption to normal routines. The benefits of having clear and timely lines of communication was emphasised during the recent cold snap and we’ve listened to people and taken on board their comments when developing the new web page,’ he added. ‘This is just a very basic web page which tries to bring together information from different agencies in one place. It was developed very quickly by the Information Systems Division of the Department of Economic Development for which we’re grateful. In future we’d like to see more live status updates on things such as bus services, and power and water outages, for example. If anyone has any feedback or suggestions on the new travel update page, then please email us at change@gov.im.’ Ends