The "hostile spin" and "one-eyed nature" of local newspapers has generated the growth of local council newsletters.

That's the view of a borough councillor in response to a call for an "urgent debate" on the rise of the publications by a regional daily's editor.

Peter Barron, chief of the Darlington-based Northern Echo, said that the amount of taxpayers' cash which was spent on the publications, particularly those that compete for local advertising, needed to be looked at.

But Nick Wallis, a member of Darlington Borough Council which produces 'Town Crier', said that many local newspapers don't offer councils balanced coverage, hence the need for some to produce their own newsletters.

He blogged: "A key point is that a lot of local newspapers do not operate like the Echo which is broadly fair in its treatment of news stories.

"It's a bum rap if whatever you do, no matter how well, the local paper slags you off as 'loony left' because of the general political bias of the media group.

"It's precisely the one-eyed nature of a lot of the local press that generated the growth of council magazines, because local authorities wanted to talk directly to their residents, and avoid the hostile spin continually imposed by media.

"Some councils, of course, do everything they can to minimise the burden on local council tax payers.

"So in Darlington, the Town Crier carries adverts from lots of local businesses.....I'm guessing this hurts the local newspaper industry at a time when advertising revenue is at a premium.

"However, local councils can't win. They're damned if they have a council magazine with significant costs to the tax payer, and damned if they try to offset those costs with advertising revenue."

In recent months several councils have either ditched their newsletters altogether, such as Cornwall and Doncaster, or are reviewing them like Lancashire and Birmingham.

And earlier this month culture, media and sport secretary Ben Bradshaw MP called them "propaganda sheets".

Peter welcomed the councils' decisions, adding: "Millions are spent around the country on free council magazines.

"Council bosses argue that it is not the job of such magazines to be unbiased or independent – that, they say, is the role of the local newspaper. But the result is that these publicly-funded publications lack credibility.

"The government acknowledges that local newspapers are vital to local democracy, yet council publications are allowed to compete for precious advertising revenue in a shrinking market."

THURSDAY UPDATE