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Scottish council officers will be glued to their smartphones on 27 September, as the majority of councils run a coordinated all-day live Twitter event.

The 24-hour Twitter event, called What we do, is designed to raise awareness about the breadth of services supplied by Scottish authorities as many face the prospect of looming budget cuts.

The Highland Council plans to send out around 80 tweets on Tuesday to reflect the times at which various council services are supplied.

Local authorities welcome the initiative but a spokesperson from Highland Council's press office expressed concern that the bombardment of tweets may put some followers off.  

'We'll be warning followers on Monday so hopefully that will reduce any negative impact,' he said.

The event will come just days after more bad news for Scottish Council budgets. Yesterday SNP finance minister John Swinney announced a range of policy initiatives for 2012 and 2015, including a council tax freeze, which is expected to put an increasing strain on local authority budgets. Councils such as the Highland Council have already made over $50 million of savings over the past five years.

Highland Council budget leader David Alston said: 'Councils provide literally hundreds of services around the clock, 365 days a year, and this event will give service users a chance to see one day in the life of a council. 'We face challenging financial times but it's important that people understand the kinds of services we provide even faced with those challenges.'

All councils taking part in the initiative will be using the hashtag #whatwedo.

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