Finally our pressure to cut the Labour-run Councils publicity rag further have been listened to. Last year the council reduced numbers down to 6 from 10 copies a year following Lib Dem pressure. I pushed for this to be a maximum of 4 copies. Now it has been reduced down to four a year, saving several hundred thousand pounds more.  Just a pity they took so long to recognise that we were right – they would have had all that money in the bank.

Another Lib Dem success in cutting Labour waste.

Our press release last year on this:

Following on from opposition pressure to cut back on publicity by one of the North East’s largest councils, it looks like Durham County Council is set to do just that.

Councillor Nigel Martin, leader of the Lib Dem Group on Durham County Council, which called for issues of Durham County News to be cut back, commented “We have been pushing for some time now for Labour’s publicity magazine to be cut back and I am please to say that it looks like they may be about to reduce the number of copies from 10 to six a year, saving £439,680 over the next three years.

“This just goes to show that opposition pressure is paying off in County Durham, for the benefit of local residents. I only wish Durham County Council’s Labour administration would get to grips with our County instead of having to rely on opposition groups to show them the way. Having said that, given the mess their national colleagues have left the country in it’s hardly surprising.”

Councillor Mark Wilkes, Lib Dem for Framwellgate Moor, who uncovered the latest proposals commented “With every week that passes it becomes clearer that we can protect frontline services by rooting out Labour’s waste. They refused to listen earlier in the year to proposals to cut costs, but now they have had to admit they were wrong. I would go further and reduce the number of issues of County News to 4 a year, saving a further £219,840 over the next three years.”

Each copy of County News currently costs around £36,640 to deliver and print, and as in other councils, Durham County Council has in the past come under criticism for what many consider to be a publicity tool.”