We are all familiar with the publicity shots of Brent councillors with 'community skips' and smiling, albeit slightly embarrassed Veolia staff, but a ruling that purdah rules means that they cannot take place during a General Election suggests that these have always been a party political event rather than a council service. Community skips were in the Labour Party council election manifesto.
The rules state:
Local authorities in Great Britain have a statutory responsibility not to publish any material which appears to be designed to affect public support for a political party. The Code of Recommended Practice on Local Authority Publicity is issued under section 4 of the Local Government Act 1986, as amended, and local authorities must have regard to it. Publicity is “any communication, in whatever form, addressed to the public at large or to a section of the public." This guidance applies at all times but during the pre-election period greater care is generally taken and goes beyond just publicity. Use of council facilities and resources should not be used for party political campaigning.
The fact that the guidance 'applies at all times' does raise the issue of previous publicity put out by the Council's public relations department on the council's official twitter feed.
If councillor presence was just for party publicity could the skips have continued quietly without them?
It would be helpful if Brent Council would take note of the woefully inadequate food waste container placed on the corner of Kingsgate opposite Chalk hill Road.
ReplyDeleteThe said container is reguarly overfilled to the point when the content is strewn all over the pavement.
That attracts flies, pigeons, Magpies, even Foxes are drawn to that particular space because of the way that food waste is allowed to be disposed of without any apparent concern for the inevitable environmental problems that naturally develops under such poor standards.
It's all good and well for the leader and a councillor to pose for photographs that make them appear to be concerned about the ever-falling standards of enviromental cleanliness and adequate bins for household items.
However, they show little concern about the issue I am raising.
That's not fair, smacks of double standards and looks like they just enjoy posing for photos.
Community skips have always been about the glossy photo ops for Labour.
ReplyDeleteThey don't care about us actual residents who have to live with...
- rubbish being dumped in the same places every single day;
- the street drinkers gathering and dumping their litter in the same places everyday;
- the paan spitters defacing our streets in the same places everyday.
Let's have some of this community skip and photoshoot money spent on catching these offenders.
Hahaha their fakery is busted
ReplyDeleteAnon 10 June 2024 at 23:32
ReplyDeleteHow true