Local authorities have used this year’s 24-hour tweet-a-thon as an opportunity to showcase the huge range of services they provide ahead of a crunch Budget.

The Local Government Association’s sixth annual #OurDay event encourages councils to use the Twitter hashtag to provide insights into their everyday work.

By mid-morning today, the hashtag was already trending on Twitter – indicating that, once again, many local authority staff had seized the opportunity to showcase their work using one of the world’s biggest social media platforms.

Waste collection staff at Middlesbrough Council were busy tweeting from 7.30am – reminding everybody that they are on the streets from 7am as part of their regular collection of 38,000 bins.

Early-rising cleaning staff at Oldham MBC were also busy at dawn tweeting pictures of their hard work preparing the town’s public buildings for use.

Many care staff across the country tweeted insights into their work throughout the night.

Chairman of the LGA’s improvement and innovation board, Cllr Paul Bettison, said: ‘#OurDay has gone from strength to strength in recent years and we hope this will be the biggest yet.

‘Councils make a real difference in their communities, but much of what we do is out of sight, like helping vulnerable children and preventing homelessness.

‘I hope as many local authorities, councillors and staff as possible get involved and highlight the good work that is going on in their communities.’

A LGA spokesman added: ‘The reputation of local government has never been more important as local authorities are increasingly having to deliver more with less.

‘Taking place the day before the Budget on Wednesday, it is an opportunity for the sector to remind the chancellor of the invaluable work councils do on a daily basis.’