Town Halls defy calls to axe council newspapers
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They have been described by the Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles as the product of "Town Hall Pravda printing presses".
Many Tories believe council newspapers delivered to households are little more than taxpayer-funded propaganda and argue they should be scrapped, or at the very least, scaled back.
New guidance issued by Eric Pickles' department suggests that local authorities should reduce their publications to a quarterly service.
A number of local newspaper publishers have been calling for government curbs on Town Hall free sheets.
North East Lincolnshire Council is faced with making savings of around £30m over four years. The Grimsby-based authority has announced it's reducing editions of its paper from monthly to bi-monthly.
Linc-Up currently costs around £100,000 a year to produce and council chiefs believe they can cut that amount by less than half by reducing the print run and finding cheaper delivery options.
The Liberal Democrat leader of North East Lincolnshire Council, Andrew De Freitas, believes the paper serves an important role by informing residents about how their council tax is being spent.
However, Martin Vickers, the Conservative MP for Cleethorpes - who is a former North East Lincolnshire councillor - disagrees and claims the money would be better spent on an occasional supplement published in co-operation with the local media.
Others would also argue that in an era of Facebook and Twitter, council chiefs should concentrate on web-based communication.
For the time being, council papers look to be here to stay and it's a subject we discussed on this week's Politics Show in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.
Your comments, as always, are welcome on this subject.
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I'm Tim Iredale, the BBC's Political Editor in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire and presenter of the regional Politics Show. This is strictly a "no-spin" zone where the political viewpoint is more Humber Bridge than Westminster Bridge. Your comments and observations are more than welcome.
Comments
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The element of truth in Pickle's point varies from region to region, but he does *have* a point. These papers are read by practically no-one, and are in some cases total wastes of money. It's not as simple as 'putting it on the web' of course; someone still has to compile the information, write the articles, and publish them. And someone has to maintain that website. But if we save £30,000, that's great - that's someone's job saved. This is a no-brainer as far as I can see?
If we can find good solid savings like this in a relatively sensible council like Lincoln, just think of the savings we could find in a wasteful money-pit like Liverpool council! :)
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I always read the "free" publication my council sends. It started a few years ago with a newspaper format of 12 pages twice a year. Now we get 8 pages every other month (at least, it feels like it). The content has become less interesting, too, with at least two pages dedicated to urging people to claim Council Tax benefit. I don't mind the content so much as the cost of printing and the impact on the environment. We also get a very chunky publication with the Council Tax bill every year. I would suggest that we keep that publication and expand it to include more council news, and stop printing the other things. The content can move to the web, where most of it is duplicated already anyway. I suppose there are people in the borough without access to the net, and that's always a concern, but I'd rather see the council invest money in getting them online, rather than send them a printed newspaper that they probably don't read.
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My council recently gave us the option of opting out of the paper magazine and reading it online, which I chose. The paper version always went straight into the recycling bin.The only time I would ever read it was when they published the annual accounts and bin collection days. I don't think it's the business of councils to produce newspapers. Local papers will publish any information for free. I'm fed up with my money being wasted.
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