A Labour councillor has accused the Conservatives of trying to rush out news ahead of pre-election restrictions across Lichfield and Burntwood.
Today (20th March) marks the start of the purdah period where council’s must abide by a range of rules on material sent out through official channels.
The guidance to local authorities states “press releases or other publicity will be purely factual and will exclude quotes attributed to individual elected members”.
Cllr Steve Norman, leader of the Labour opposition group at Lichfield District Council, has questioned a late flurry of news from the controlling Conservative group about items such as the leisure centre development and work to create a greenway.
“It looks like desperation to use council resources to issue a record eight news releases in one day – the last day before the election rules comes in.
“The previous Friday it was three news releases and the Friday before just one.
“Six of the eight have quotes from cabinet members including four from the council leader who is supposed to be responsible for communications. They would not be able to do this [from today].
“One of the news releases refers to a 12-month recycling campaign which I have been pressing for even before the blue bag fiasco. The irony is that while Cllr Pullen said he was responsible for communications during the blue bag roll-out he has never once apologised for the mess or implemented the ‘communication plan’ he promised last May.”
Cllr Steve Norman, Lichfield District Council
Cllr Doug Pullen, leader of the controlling Conservative group, said such an increase in communications was not unusual in the lead up to the local elections.
“With the high volume of work we’ve been undertaking, it’s fairly logical that there would be a spike as officers sought to ensure absolute compliance with the law by not allowing anything to be announced nearer the elections.”
Cllr Doug Pullen, Lichfield District Council
