COUNCILLORS and staff at West Devon Borough Council are celebrating after another successful OurDay campaign.

OurDay is a yearly tweet-a-thon and social media campaign which showcases the work of councils across the UK. Developed by the Local Government Association, OurDay brings the often confusing work of local authorities to life for everyone.

This year, more than 14,000 people posted over 45,000 tweets, reaching 31 million people. The hashtag #OurDay was trending worldwide on Twitter for much of the day.

West Devon Borough Council (WDBC) posted a total of 49 tweets and 48 Facebook posts, reaching a whopping 681,103 people. Individual posts were retweeted or shared more than 100 times, and collectively received 353 likes.

Cllr Lois Samuel, deputy leader at West Devon Borough Council said: ‘Social media campaigns like OurDay are a really useful way of reaching out to our customers, especially as we are seeing increasing numbers of residents of all ages and backgrounds using Twitter and Facebook.

‘At the same time, it’s a great platform for us to share our experiences on, and give everyone a chance to see what goes on at WDBC on a daily basis. A lot of our work is naturally behind the scenes, so it’s wonderful to be able to showcase the work we do for our communities.’

Throughout the day the council shared some key facts about the services they provide for local residents, such as:

• WDBC receives only 12% of the council tax paid by a property. A band D property on average pays just £213 per year for all the services provided by SHDC, from planning and playparks to environmental health and grounds maintenance.

• By the end of this year, South Hams District Council and West Devon Borough Council will have given out more than 1.2-million in disabled facilities grants.

• WDBC’s customer contact centre takes more than half a million calls a year, yet the average wait on switchboard in October was just 19 seconds.

• Last year, West Devon residents recycled 2,000 tonnes of paper, saving 34,000 trees.

You can follow West Devon Borough Council on Facebook by searching ‘West Devon Borough Council’ and on Twitter using @WestDevon_BC.