http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/council_newspapers_16#incoming-65236

It states:

Council advertising must be placed in The News unless there is a legitimate reason for placing the advertisement in another publication, for example, direction in law on where the advertisement is placed.

Public notices are charged per single column centimetre. Council public notices must be published in The News unless there is a valid exemption, such as having to appear in consecutive weekly publications. This is a policy decision by the council and finance will block any attempts to place advertisements or public notices that qualify for The News in any other publication.

Dear Mr Taylor,

Thank you for your email regarding my speech in the House over the matter affecting constituents and the Highways Agency.

I share your views about advertising, and if you have not already done so you may wish to contact your own MP.

Best wishes for Christmas and the New Year.

Yours sincerely,

David Winnick

Mr Winnick,

I listened to you in Parliament yesterday saying:

“Residents were given no proper notification that the work was going to take place. … All that happened was that some advertisements were placed in the regional press that residents were unlikely to see.”

Are you aware that the Highways agency spends £3,340,426.53 a year on those adverts which you rightly say those interested and concerned are unlikely to see? Local highways authorities probably spend many times that amount, I estimate £16,000,000.

There is a clear opportunity here to both save a large amount of money and significantly improve communication; a web-based system would cost a tiny fraction of the sums currently being spent. Even if people didn’t sign up for email alerts themselves their elected representatives, local papers and local bloggers probably would and information about proposed works on roads would be more effectively communicated.

I have written an article about the cost of statutory advertising in relation to work on roads at:

http://www.rtaylor.co.uk/1953

I am not one of your constituents.

Regards,

“Residents were given no proper notification that the work was going to take place. … All that happened was that some advertisements were placed in the regional press that residents were unlikely to see.”

There is a clear opportunity here to both save a large amount of money and significantly improve communication.

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debate/?id=2009-12-16a.983.3&c=25048

–

Richard Taylor
Cambridge
http://www.rtaylor.co.uk

An even lower fraction of the population read their local paper; never mind read the small print of the statutory adverts or have easy access a back issue from a couple of weeks or months ago.

Even if an individual doesn’t have internet access I think publishing information online makes it more accessible to them than publishing it only in a local paper.

(Cambridgeshire County Council have referred enquirers to back issues of papers rather than supply information on notices.)

I think local papers, and local online media, can be commercially viable propositions. We certainly shouldn’t be supporting them in a backhanded manner through statutory notices. I think local news, coverage of councils, local arms of the state, courts etc. is crucial but would not support this kind of subsidy. Opening up the these currently secretive organisations so that information on their activities is easily open to all, including the local press, would reinvigorate local news coverage.

The other thing to consider is that, while this isn’t the purpose of these adverts, they quite possibly keep the papers in business, and local papers are an important part of local democracy that is already under huge pressure. Funding papers by the back door is not the best way to do it, but it may be the only thing between having a local paper and not for some at present.

If so, some of the savings that would come from a change in the law would not directly benefit the State.

More worryingly, I do hope that the costs you discovered via FOI are not net figures - i.e. after deducting such reimbursements. If that were the case, the real amount spent on advertisements could be much higher.