Most councils publish a newspaper – usually delivered to your door and instantly
discarded. The government has decided that these freesheets are both a waste of public money and detrimental to local newspapers competing in the open market; the accusation that they are
predominantly used for propaganda purposes has also been made.
Labour opposed the revisions to the Code of Recommended Practice on Local Authority Publicity, which might suggest that these publications are too valuable to their councils. However, some of the red camp’s objections were valid.
Two weeks ago, Chris Williamson, Shadow Communities and Local Government Minister, said that the proposals were indicative of Whitehall’s continued interference in local government, a megalomania that is hampering localism. Williamson has a point: as I blogged last week, the DCLG insists that councils are becoming more autonomous, while retaining tight control of money supply and prescribing certain types of spending and service. As for the issue of propaganda, Williamson continued with a peculiarly Conservative concern: was this latest top-down initiative necessary?
‘Legislation is already on the statute book that prevents local authority publications garnering support for any political party. As that legislation exists, the code is unnecessary.’
A question about the efficacy of that legislation arises, but it was not discussed.
He then moved on to practical arguments. At a time of huge change in local government, councils need to place statutory notices in the public domain. That seems reasonable, but they don’t need their own paper to do that. Williamson argued that advertising in local newspapers would cost more than running a freesheet, and quoted evidence recently given by the Mayor of Hackney to the Select Committee.
Labour’s argument breaks down over cost and content. The fortnightly council publication Hackney Today will cost £448,000 to print this year; the council say that advertising essential news in the private sector will cost £543,000. That may be so, but Kensington and Chelsea council produces a newsletter that cost £68,207 last year. The difference? The Royal Borough’s 16-page sheet is only printed once every two months and it doesn’t contain the arts reviews, sports stories, lifestyle articles and puzzles that pervade the 36 pages of Hackney Today.
Williamson’s defence of lavish editorial content was masterful:
‘It would be a waste of money if a local authority produced a publication that was very dull and unengaging, and that people were very unlikely to read.’
Quite.
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