COUNCIL PLANS TO BLOW THEIR OWN TRUMPET WITH OVER £70,000 OF TAXPAYERS MONEY

12.23.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Wed 9th Jul 2008

The Conservative administration at Shire Hall has launched a national advertising campaign to recruit a "Trumpet Blower". The plan is to find someone to promote the "corporate brand" of the Conservative-run council and to specialise in marketing their image.

A private consultancy firm has been hired by the county council to begin the nationwide search for the "Trumpet Blower". The county council has already spent a massive £9911 on just one advert in a national newspaper. The full cost of the recruitment and advertising campaign to local county taxpayers cannot be revealed due to commercial sensitivity.

In the past two weeks, Liberal Democrat councillors have been determined to uncover the full extent of the Conservative cabinet spending on media and public relations.

The Tory cabinet member in charge of Finance and local taxpayers' money was forced to admit in public his administration was responsible for spending £899,000 in the last financial year on media and public relations.

This week Liberal Democrat councillors have uncovered the council spending of over £4000 a year buying newspapers. Over 140 newspapers a week are ordered and delivered to Shire Hall under this Conservative administration.

Cllr Jeremy Hilton, Liberal Democrat leader in Gloucestershire said: "The Conservative plan to blow their own gold-plated trumpet at local taxpayers expense is shocking. Frontline services will suffer while £70,000 of taxpayers money is spent on media and public relations. At a difficult time for local people and their families financially, the priorities of council spending under this administration are all wrong. The focus of the council spending now should be on improving the services available to people who live and work in the county not on dishing out council propaganda."

Cllr Roger Brown, Liberal Democrat, Cirencester said: "When we began the Liberal Democrat search to uncover just how much money was being spent on spin and marketing at the county council we never expected to discover the huge sums involved. The Conservatives must take responsibility for this casual attitude to taxpayers' money. At a time when hard-working people in the county are struggling with inflation, rising fuel costs and falling house prices, arranging an expensive marketing campaign to promote their brand and image is unacceptable."

Cllr Hilton added: "The money the Tory cabinet is spending on spin can only have come from putting up council tax or cutting the money spent on frontline services. I wonder if they will admit this when they go to the people of Gloucestershire in elections next year. Let the people of Gloucestershire decide if they trust the retired Tory councillors from the Cotswolds to spend taxpayers money on better public services than on spin and self-promotion"