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.