District and borough councils in Suffolk lodge complaint with monitoring officer of county over alleged "breaches" of publicity rules and advertising standards

The complaint - lodged by the leaders of Babergh District Council, East Suffolk Council, Ipswich Borough Council, Mid Suffolk District Council and West Suffolk Council - also calls for an investigation into alleged breaches of the Advertising Standards Authority’s Code of Advertising Practice.

The row relates to what the leaders of the districts and boroughs claims is the “misleading” publicity and promotion of the county council’s ‘One Suffolk’ proposal for local government reorganisation.

It comes after councils undergoing reorganisation were warned by the Government to stick to the Code of Publicity and to "take particular care around the principles of objectivity and even-handedness, and the appropriate use of publicity".

The Code requires publicity issued by local authorities to adhere to the following seven principles: lawfulness, cost-effectiveness, objectivity, even-handedness, appropriateness, having regard to equality and diversity, and being issued with care during periods of heightened sensitivity.

The district and borough councils in Suffolk wrote to Local Government Minister Alison McGovern with their concerns before the Government issued its general warning.

In their complaint to the county's monitoring officer, which follows further advice from the minister, the district and borough councils argue that the county’s ‘One Suffolk’ Campaign failed to meet the Local Government Code of Publicity and the Advertising Standards Authority’s Code of Advertising Practice “in that:

• Its content is not honest and truthful.
• It is not objective and even-handed; and
• It uses public funds to pay for lobbyists and lobbying activity”.

The leaders of Suffolk’s district and borough councils said: “This reorganisation of Local Government and the vital services that are delivered for our communities is too important to play party politics with. Residents expect councils to conduct themselves in a mature way, meet the national standards for publicity and advertising, and to lay out the arguments fairly so they can make informed choices….

“We were pleased to see that [writing to the minister] led to a letter going out to all councils in the Devolution Priority Programme to remind them that publicity must be even-handed and objective, and that public money must not be spent on one sided propaganda. Following further advice from the minister we are now calling upon Suffolk County Council’s monitoring officer to carry out a formal investigation under their complaints process into our concerns.”

A Suffolk County Council spokesperson confirmed the council has received the complaint and will be "looking into it". 

Lottie Winson