A national newspaper has suggested a nationwide return to the committee system of local government would be beneficial to the regional press.
An editorial carried in the Daily Telegraph made the claim following the resignation of the entire cabinet of Rotherham Council after the publication of the Casey report into the sexual abuse of girls in the town.
In September, Rotherham Advertiser Andrew Mosley denied the weekly newspaper had “missed” the scandal, which was first reported by Times journalist Andrew Norfolk.
An article in the New Statesman had claimed mounting pressures on regional newsrooms meant local journalists were failing to spot such major stories.
But Andrew countered that the scandal “wasn’t something we didn’t spot on a council agenda or that was discussed in a meeting that we couldn’t attend due to lack of staff”.
Speaking at the Journalism Skills Conference in November, Andrew added that the Times’ scoop had “opened doors” to his paper in its subsequent attempts to hold the authorities to account and said he did not feel a sense of “shame” of the Advertiser’s coverage of the issue.
In its editorial, the Telegraph claims an across-the-board return to the committee system would lead to better accountability.
It reads: “For too long, town hall leaders have been shielded from proper public scrutiny by the structures of governance created under Labour, in which council chiefs grandly preside over ‘cabinets’ that are heavily reliant on powerful and highly paid full-time officers.
“This system is inherently anti-democratic. Decisions are often taken behind closed doors by a small group of favoured burghers, whose conclusions are then rubber-stamped by the full council.
“The local press, or what is left of it, struggles to find out what is going on, as its reporters once could under the old open committee system.”
The piece concludes: “If the Conservatives make one manifesto promise about local government, let it be to make it subject once again to the scrutiny that might have ended a dreadful ordeal for hundreds of vulnerable girls.”
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Press officers must be smiling at all this. Many never see a reporter from one council meeting to another because the people running newspapers do not exercise their democratic right to cover them. They are failing the public, no-one else. Get real.
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I have covered hundreds of council meetings, until JP bosses slashed staff to such stupid levels it was no longer possible. I do agree the old committee system was more democratic and if you were quick witted enough to read between the lines of the debates produced some excellent stories. In my area now local people no longer know what their councillors are saying at council meetings. Journos just recycle press releases from councils. Now that’s democracy for you.
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It might have been better if Andrew Mosley had sought to explain his position more humbly as the Advertiser DID miss the child sex scandal. But never mind. He says the child sex scandal wasn’t something we didn’t spot on a council agenda or that was discussed in a meeting that we couldn’t attend due to lack of staff”. There are many obstacles to the Press ever uncovering ‘the truth’ but any editor would surely have ensured that somebody – councillor, council official, MP, trade union, child welfare worker etc etc – would have tipped off the Advertiser about what was going on at some stage? It isn’t as though – as Andrew said – the scandal was a one-off event (blink and you’ve missed it); the scandal was growing over many years. What has happened to contacts in Rotherham? But perhaps Andrew is too young to know about contacts.
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Some councils like West Lindsey District in Lincolnshire webcast their committee meetings.
We should also remember that council documents are posted online too.
Thus, there is no excuse for not covering council.
While I much prefer the old days turning up in person to see the councillors battle it out, covering council is still possible in these time-pressed times.
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Webcasts are all well and good so long as the viewer can always see who is speaking – and the speaker is identified, or gives his or her name before speaking.
I presume Andrew Mosley is the editor…the story does tell us.
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Apologies. I intended to write “the story doesn’t tell us”.
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Well said Flossie The Sheep. More scrutiny required, fewer press releases.
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