The last edition of a fortnightly council-run newspaper has been published 23 years after it was launched.
The London Borough of Tower Hamlets has printed the last East End Life in line with a Government directive on the publication frequency of local authority newsletters.
Instead, the council is set to publish a quarterly magazine from 13 June called Our East End.
According to a piece announcing Life’s closure on its front page this week, pictured below, the newspaper was set up in 1993 to “promote services and help foster unity and community cohesion” following the election of a British National Party councillor on the Isle of Dogs.
The piece, by editor Helen Watson, continues: “The team on East End Life would like to thank all of our readers and those who have contributed to the paper down the years, sending us their stories, views and photos.
“We are obviously biased, but Tower Hamlets is one of the most interesting boroughs in London, busting full of news, things to do and places to go, and its people are the best.”
Tower Hamlets had agreed to close East End Life by the end of March, having been ordered by the Department for Communities and Local Government to print their own publications on a no more than quarterly basis.
Earlier this month, Chancellor George Osborne claimed newspapers produced by local councils are an “abuse of public funds” in a piece for the Politics Home website.
Mr Osborne hit out at what former Communities Secretary Eric Pickles termed ‘Town Hall Pravdas’, pledging a further clampdown on those which refuse to comply with guidelines on publication frequency.
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For “council-run newspaper “, read “council propaganda sheet”.
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Perhaps if local papers were covering local news and council stories to the same extent they used to, the rise of council newspapers wouldn’t have happened. Just because a press release comes from a council doesn’t automatically mean it’s full of spin, sometimes they’re just good stories.
Nevertheless, glad to see this is closing it’s not great for competition. Not sure dedicating the front page lead is the right thing though, it’s a bit inward looking.
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So what do we now expect?
Not anything better at all.
The issue is that neither the Council nor the so-called independent local news papers (that is a joke) care for the Truth.
There is a toxic vacuum.
The Council’s vacuum is exacerbated by the scrapping of Councillors-based Democracy which has been abolished by the imposition of elected mayor whose face keeps beaming
no matter what Council-controlled platform or outlet
it hits you from!
Gideon Osborne is not a source of ethical narrative about local Communities. Only the local Communities are.
But the Communities are being denied the Say that is so vital for Local Democratic Accountability.
This vacuum is one key Manifesto Item that Corbyn must
immediately get hold of and uphold!
For the sake of Society!
And for the sake of his ‘tenure’!
NOW!
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