HEREFORDSHIRE Council is sticking with its “free” self-promotional magazine that costs some £75,000 a year to produce.

Talk of taxpayer funded bi-monthly Herefordshire Matters falling victim to coming cuts has been dismissed by the authority.

New local government secretary Eric Pickles recently announced a toughing up of rules governing council publications saying less should be spent on “Pravdas that end up in the bin” at the expense of frontline services.

Herefordshire Matters was attacked as being like Pravda at a meeting of the full council earlier this year.

Then, members heard that the magazine was set up to communicate information on council or council-related services, decisions, and programmes.

All told, the council currently budgets £12,500 per edition with the gross annual cost being £75,000 based on six editions a year delivered free to more than 80,000 households and locations.

Distribution is the highest cost element of the magazine, with council staff contributing content, and advertising revenue worth around £30,000 a year.

The council cites its own surveys as showing Herefordshire Matters has an “all or most” readership of 73 per cent while another 24 per cent read “a few” articles.

These same surveys showed that nearly 100 per cent of respondents found the articles interesting or covering issues important to them.

A special scrutiny subcommittee is examining all aspects of the council’s external communications and will deliver a report with recommendations later this year.