A North West council is massively scaling down its newsletter in the latest setback for local authority “propaganda sheets.”

Lancashire County Council’s new Tory authority, which was elected last month, says it is sticking to a budget pledge by taking ‘Vision’ magazine from ten editions per year down to just two.

The Lancashire Telegraph reports that council bosses are also considering scrapping the newsletter altogether in future years which will now be published in September and March.

It is expected the reduction in issues will save the authority more than £292,000 per year, out of a current annual bill of £373,450.

The move is the latest development in what appears to be a growing backlash against local authority publications.

Another incoming Tory administration, at Cornwall County Council, recently scrapped its Your Cornwall newspaper after winning control from the Lib Dems.

Lancashire’s new council leader Geoff Driver told the Telegraph: “We are doing what we said we would do.

“This will still give us the opportunity to communicate with the people of Lancashire. I just felt it was propaganda for the Labour Party. The people of Lancashire do not expect their council tax money to be spent on that.”

Elsewhere in the red rose county, Hyndburn Borough Council publishes one newsletter a year, Ribble Valley Borough Council two and Rossendale Borough Council three.

Blackburn with Darwen Council produces its Shuttle Magazine every six weeks, costing around £35,000 to produce.

In an interview published at the weekend culture and media secretary Ben Bradshaw MP urged council leaders to re-think the money they spend on their newsletters, branding them “propaganda sheets”.

Comments

David (07/08/2009 10:09:36)
This is excellent news. Vision was only ever extended in Lancashire when the now-departed Labour leadership decided that the reason people didn’t like their ideas was because of the way they were being reported in papers like the LEP and LET. What they failed to realise that trying to report care home closures, school changes, reduced bus services and increases meals on wheels charges in a positive manner, in a council-run publication, would only upset local people more. Well done to the Tories for keeping to their promise on this – not all councils which have become Tory have done the same – and for doing away with a “newspaper” which was set up by ex-journalists-turned-councillors who believed it would be easy to fool people.

A different view point (07/08/2009 10:28:50)
I disagree with you here David. I enjoy reading my Council communications to find out what my money is being spent on. How else am I going to get this information?
Our local newspaper only ever seeks to tell the negative so there has to be a balance available. I will miss reading the Vision and resent this decision by the Tory leadership, why don’t they look at re-shaping the chief officer structure as a starting point? How are the Tories going to communicate what they are doing? That would shave much more than the quoted £292,000! A silly decision.

David (07/08/2009 12:10:12)
If your local paper only reports the negative, the solution for the council should be to set up its own newspaper, especially not one which then only reports the positive news about the county council, and only ever presents one side of an argument. You don’t get balance that way, because not everyone else would read the counterargument. What you get is propoganda funded by you and I. I would suggest LCC would be better advised seeking to talk to the newspapers in its area and see how it can get positive stories out as well. The problem LCC has had for years is that several members of its political leadership were ex-journalists who, once criticised, resorted to throwing their weight around and threatening to cancel advertising and refusing to speak to the media unless it was to take a pop at the papers involved. You talk about money wasted – but I suspect you are in a minority of people who actually used to read Vision and believe what was being said.

David (07/08/2009 12:11:15)
For “If your local paper only reports the negative, the solution for the council should be to set up its own newspaper” I missed out a ‘not’ after the word be.