Ministers have rejected calls from MPs to water down its plans to crack down on council newspapers.
The government is imposing a new code of practice on what it calls ‘town hall Pravdas’ including limiting their frequency of publication.
A report from the backbench communities and local government commitee of MPs claimed this cut across the coalition’s ‘localist’ principles.
But in a hard-hitting response to the report, local government minister Grant Shapps refused to back down.
“Few things have done more to undermine local democracy than the explosion in town hall Pravdas bankrolled by hard pressed taxpayers,” he said.
“The age of wasting taxpayers cash on pet projects like local propaganda sheets is over.”
Committee chair Clive Betts said: “There is a clear concern that some local authorities are using council taxpayer’s money to promote their local politicians and policies.
“However, we doubt that the proposed code should specify a maximum frequency of publication.”
Current proposals would see councils banned from publishing more than four issues of a newsletter every year.
The Newspaper Society has long argued that the council publications are unfairly competing with local newspapers, but the committee said the NS had failed to provide evidence of this.
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They shouldn’t be propaganda sheets and they shouldn’t be competing with local papers. But then it’s hard to see why Mr. Shapps shouldn’t encourage communication between councils and council tax payers…..unless, of course, he doesn’t much like the idea of public services anyway.
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Councils have only started up their own papers because the weekly and regional press no longer have the staff to do the job properly. What happened to local government correspondents who new councillors and the workings of local authorities intimately? Most local papers now simply rely on council hand-outs. It’s the press release culture!
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To be fair, it doesn’t help that councils no longer let journos speak directly to the people concerned. Even councillors look to defer to the all-important pr office before trotting out a quote nowadays
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What this rather one-sided report fails to mention was that the select committee found no evidence to support the Newspaper Society and Eric Pickles’ claims. That’s because there is none. It also fais to mention that the NUJ spports council newspapers.
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Here here, Billy. Eagle-eyed readers will have spotted the glaring omissions. More canny scribes might also accuse the Newspaper Society of constructing a woeful excuse to mask the real reason for the demise of local newspapers – wonky and risk averse management that has stripped all of the assets that ever made newspapers worthwhile to make short-term profits.
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