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Council scraps newspaper it launched in defiance of government

A council which flouted government guidelines to launch a regular newspaper has shut the publication for good after members voted to scrap it.

Wirral Council’s then-ruling Labour group launched Wirral View in 2016 with a monthly publication frequency, despite Marcus Jones, local government minister at the time, demanding reassurances that the authority would not press ahead with the project.

The government’s publicity code saying council publications should come out no more than quarterly – but 10 editions of the newsletter were produced last year and five have been brought out so far this year.

However, May’s local elections saw Labour lose its majority on the council, although it continues as a minority administration, and councillors voted to close the title at a meeting last week, according to a report in the Wirral Globe.

Wirral View 2019

The move was backed by 31 councillors as Conservative, Liberal Democrat, Green and Independents voted together to scrap it, while 29 Labour councillors voted to keep it but to carry out a review at the end of the year.

Tory councillor Tony Cox, who proposed ending publication, told the meeting: “We must not waste another penny on this so-called newspaper. It has failed against every measure the cabinet set for it.

“£402,000 has been wasted. Half the borough doesn’t get it and the other half doesn’t want it. I’m delighted that a majority of councillors agreed and would ask the cabinet to urgently accept the decision of council and ensure that no further money is thrown down the drain.”

“The government’s guidelines against this kind of publicity are there for a reason – council newspapers don’t work. Sadly, Wirral has learned this the hard way.”

HTFP reported last month how Waltham Forest Council and Hackney Council had confirmed they were set to appeal against the High Court’s demand they stop publishing fortnightly newsletters in contravention of the guidelines.

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  • July 22, 2019 at 11:05 am
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    To be fair that cover looks far better than majority of the free papers produced by the main regional publishers.

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