Giles Rees of Belmont, Hereford, says too much spent on council PR work (From Hereford Times)

Giles Rees of Belmont, Hereford, says too much spent on council PR work

7:00am Sunday 12th February 2012 in Letters

THANKS to the reporting of the Hereford Times, we know that an early matter for Herefordshire councillors – around about the time they were voting through new and increased allowances for members – was a session on media skills.

The newspaper has also told us that the salary package of Herefordshire Council’s impressively titled director of communications exceeds £80,000 a year.

Factor in the council’s unremarkable magazine and readers will start to get some idea of the amount of public money Herefordshire Council spends promoting itself.

What readers probably don’t know is that prior to the creation of Herefordshire council, local authorities in Herefordshire never had press officers or public relations departments.

Media enquiries were handled by the chief executives or heads of department at Hereford City Council and South Herefordshire and Leominster district councils as a routine part of their jobs. The setup generally worked well.

Herefordshire Health Authority operated in the same way.

Only the very large Hereford and Worcester County Council employed a press officer and I suspect his budget was fairly modest.

Public relations, and spending on it, is also a much higher priority at many police forces, including West Mercia, than was the case not that long ago.

I presume that – even as I write – cutting-edge, multi-agency initiatives are being rolled out to make Herefordshire a better place, etc.

However, in this new age of austerity, readers will doubtless form their own opinions as to the necessity of these and other posts funded by taxpayers.

GILES REES, Belmont, Hereford