Text messages could alert people to flooding and road closures

The text messaging service can be used to send out warnings of emergencies ranging from flooding and traffic problems to a full blown terrorist attack.

The founders of the City Alert Texting System (Cats) now hope other major places will subscribe to the service, launched in February.

Philip de Leon, city council emergency planning officer, said: "The problem is that we currently have no government-funded system for alerting the public to a major emergency. This system will plug the gap.

Forward thinking

"For us it will cover two extremes. We will be able to use it to alert the public about flooding or road closures, and at the other extreme a terrorist threat, although I hope we will never need it for that. We believe it is a superb system."

For �1.50 a year mobile phone users can subscribe to the system and receive messages from their service provider, most likely to be their local authority.

It is hoped the system could help rapidly evacuate an area under threat and then offer crucial follow-up information to people affected by the emergency

Nick Sellar, spokesman for Eazytext, the firm which devised the system in response to the September 11 disasters, praised Brighton and Hove for its forward thinking.

He also said 180 other local authorities were "very interested" in it.

The city council will now try and promote the system and encourage as many people as possible to sign up.