Decommissioning sirens to save £15,000 a year

Move will 'balance cost' of new emergency system

The decommissioning of warning sirens, used to alert the Manx public in times of crisis, will save the government up to £15,000 a year.

Home Affairs Minister Graham Cregeen says this will 'balance the cost' of moving to a new emergency messaging system, run by communications company Everbridge.

Due to commercial sensitivity, the cost of the new system, where the public receive messages via telephone, text and email in the event of an emergency, hasn't been released.

Mr Cregeen claims it will reach more people than the warning sirens:

The sirens sound for a final time at 3pm today (8 May) to mark VE day, before being replaced with the new emergency messaging system.