Guest post by Philip Grant in a personal capacity
A recent Brent Council tweet.
There have been several articles recently about the number of social media posts by Brent Council with photographs of Cabinet members in them, and “tagged” to their personal social media accounts. In one of these, Martin asked “Is Brent Council promoting candidates ahead of the local elections?”
In a comment under that post, I gave the text of an email I had sent to Brent’s Chief Executive, Carolyn Downs, raising my concerns over a Brent Council Instagram post. It appeared on my private Instagram account as “recommended” for me, because I follow Brent Culture Service. I wrote:
‘The Instagram post was about banner advertisements against litter dropping, on lamp posts in Ealing Road, near Alperton Station. The colourful banners had been designed by students at Alperton Community School, and the photograph quite rightly showed a group of students and their teacher, standing in front of one of these banner advertisements.
However, also appearing in the group photograph were Cllr. Muhammed Butt and Cllr. Krupa Sheth. There is no reason why they were necessary to publicise this latest Brent Council "success", but it appears that Brent Council's official social media is giving them plenty of photo opportunities recently - even more than usual!
This incessant promotion of Labour councillors (albeit members of Brent's Cabinet) is wrong, especially close to Council elections, and I hope that it will be stopped immediately. It gives unfair publicity to one political party.’
I was particularly concerned, because the post was about Alperton, where the local election on 5 May is likely to be hotly contested, as the LibDems won a seat there from Labour in a 2020 by-election. Since his election, Cllr. Anton Georgiou has represented Alperton Ward residents, and has tried to hold the Council Leader and his Cabinet to account on a number of issues.
I have now received Brent’s reply to my email, from Debra Norman, the Council’s Legal Director. I will set it out here, in full, so that readers are aware of the official position on this:
‘The corporate communications team exists to communicate the policies and initiatives of the council and the positive impact they have on the borough and its communities.
The council operates a Leader and Cabinet model of governance in accordance with the Local Government Act 2000. This means that most decisions about council services and activities are made by the Leader chosen by full council and the Cabinet he appoints, or by officers to whom they have delegated decision-making. This group of councillors, therefore, has a different role in the council from other councillors and a particular responsibility to champion and explain to the community the activities and decisions of the council that fall within their respective portfolios.
The council’s role description for the Leader includes the following:
· To promote flagship projects of strategic significance to the borough.
· To ensure the effective communication of policies and recommendations of the Cabinet.
· To take a lead in forming partnerships with other local, public, private, voluntary and community organisations.
The role description for Cabinet Members includes the following:
· To act as spokesperson within and outside the Council on those services.
· To ensure effective communication of the decisions related to the portfolio responsibilities to the Council, the community and all appropriate agencies/bodies.
· To take a lead on external partnership working in the relevant area of responsibility.
Cabinet Members are, therefore, properly and appropriately used as the official spokespeople for matters falling within their portfolios.
Social media channels enable a quick and low cost way for the public to receive news and updates from the council. However simply following the council does not ensure that you will see every post. All of the three main platforms used by the council (Facebook, Instagram and Twitter) give preference to posts that contain images and video content, showing them to a wider audience. The communications team tailor their content accordingly, based on what performs best. Pictures with people usually do well.
The formal pre-election period begins from 24 March in Brent, when notice of the election will be posted. This is the date the Code of Recommended Practice on Local Authority Publicity, issued by the government under s 4 of the Local Government 1986, identifies as the sensitive pre-election period during which local authorities should not publish publicity that identifies issues or views with individual members or groups of members.
I can reassure you that the council and its communications team will be complying with the Code from 24 March. Until then, it is business as usual and the council’s approach to communications, which reflects that members of the Cabinet act as representatives of the council for their portfolios and help to communicate the work of the council, continues.
Specifically regarding the photo of the schoolchildren and the Cabinet Member for Environment and the Leader of the Council to which you refer, the high street banners and accompanying video have an important message about caring for our local environment. The message is more powerful because children from Alperton Community School were involved in the initiative. The timing of the photo call (and subsequent social media post) worked for the school and we wanted to ensure the news was shared well in advance of the local election on May 5 and two weeks ahead of the start of the sensitive pre-election period.’
This statement appears to confirm what I have observed for a long time – that Brent Council only puts out ‘positive’ stories. There is no “balance” in their output, and they are happy to use members of the Cabinet, who ‘help to communicate the work of the council’, in the photographs which they use to get the Council’s social media posts noticed. If you want a picture that conveys a story which isn’t “positive”, you have to produce it yourself!
My parody publicity picture for Brent’s Cecil Avenue Council housing development.
It is clear that Brent Council, and its Corporate Communications Team, have been happy to give photo opportunities and social (and other) media publicity, linking Labour Cabinet members to “positive” Council stories, for most of the past four years. They will only stop doing so six weeks before the local elections. Does that give the Labour Party and its candidates an unfair advantage in those elections?
Philip Grant.
