Liberal Democrats in North Yorkshire have welcomed the support of a Tory Shadow Cabinet member over the row about the North Yorkshire County Council’s free news sheet, the North Yorkshire Times. Speaking this week to over 150 elected councillors from across the country, Caroline Spelman, Conservative Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, said that Council publications “threaten local newspapers” and that “councils should reconsider providing them.”
Her comments come only four months after the Labour Minister for Culture Ben Bradshaw referred to local authority “newspapers” as “propaganda sheets masquerading as newspapers”.
Cllr Bill Hoult, Leader of the Liberal Democrats at North Yorkshire County Council, attended the conference. He comments:“It is good that national politicians are waking up to the reality that these so called newspapers that only peddle good news and are paid for by Council Tax payers are a direct threat to local newspapers in the area.”“The North Yorkshire Times costs £500,000 a year of taxpayers’ money to produce and, as the County Council has discovered, is not that widely read.”“We hope that the Tory chiefs at the County Council will now listen to us and the views of Tory Central Office and close this free sheet down.”
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