AddThis SmartLayers

Council newspaper slammed as ‘costly ego-trip’

A free newspaper produced by a local council at a cost of £173,000 over four years has been slammed as a “costly ego-trip.”

Since 2011, Bolton Council has spent £253,000 on its free title The Bolton Scene, which it delivers to 121,000 homes across the borough.

Of that sum, £173,000 was paid for from council budgets while the rest was met from external advertising.

Liberal Democrat councillors in the borough attacked the publication as a waste of money at a recent council meeting, the Bolton News reported.

Cllr Andrew Martin said: “Our view is that the newspaper is an extended and expensive ego trip for the council.

“Very few people take the time to read it and when the roads are in a terrible state and services are being cut, it shouldn’t be a priority for the council.

“It’s a waste of money, and just shows Labour is out of touch with what people really want in Bolton.”

But Bolton council leader Cllr Cliff Morris said the council had a duty to tell residents what the authority was doing.

He said: “We have a duty to communicate to the people of Bolton and we do that through the Scene — it probably covers 90pc of the borough.

“We use the Scene to encourage more customers to use the council website, because it is generally the cheapest way to do business, and for families to apply for school places as it is a more efficient process.”

A council spokesman added: “Bolton Council has produced Bolton Scene for many years as part of our commitment to inform the public about the work of their council, as we are required to do under local government legislation.

“We use it to communicate the many things that the council does from information about recycling and attracting residents to become foster carers and adopters to promoting events and councillors’ surgeries. It is an efficient way of reaching as many people as possible with a large range of information.

The number of editions of council newspapers allowed to be published each year has been slashed by local government minister Eric Pickles from 12 to four.

4 comments

You can follow all replies to this entry through the comments feed.
  • September 16, 2014 at 10:09 am
    Permalink

    Non story – and Cllr Andrew Martin should be aware of the councils legal obligations. Also notice he doesn’t offer any alternative methods by which the council can carry out their statutory duty….. and brings up potholes (Yawn).

    Interestingly – if Pickles hadn’t enforced this “cost saving” – councils would be in a better position to sell advertising space – as there would be a higher level of repetition and recognition & the USP of being postal delivery would make the product more lucrative for advertisers. Thus they would have a potentially cost neutral product – at maybe 8 issues a year, whilst covering off their statutory duty to ensure communication to all.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)
  • September 16, 2014 at 10:37 am
    Permalink

    My local Pravda carries lots of news information that can no longer be sourced from established local weeklies (ie when road potholes will be repaired, traffic diversions, community centre events, police patrol issues, neighbourhood watch, local trading standards scams etc etc.
    The weekly newspapers are given over to pages and pages of TV listings, entertainment/cinema guides, gardening features, cancer awareness, shop in Prague, lifetime cruses etc etc.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)
  • September 16, 2014 at 10:50 am
    Permalink

    He said: “We have a duty to communicate to the people of Bolton and we do that through the Scene — it probably covers 90pc of the borough”.

    If the Council has that duty, why is it not hitting the other 10% of the borough?

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)
  • September 16, 2014 at 1:43 pm
    Permalink

    No, councillor. You have a duty to empty the bins, keep the street lights on and see the grass verges are cut.

    Producing a “newspaper” about how fabulous you all are in not a duty.

    It is BS.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)