Stoke and Staffordshire newspaper, The Sentinel, gave the West Midlands TaxPayers’ Alliance some great coverage on Tuesday as their own findings about Stoke-On-Trent Council spin coincided with the TPA’s council spending report.
We found that Stoke has increased publicity spending by 279% over the last ten years, and The Sentinel said that press office expenditure is now hitting over £23,000-per-month.
This is how the lowest scoring council in the country is spending their local taxpayers’ money, diverting funds into positive promotion rather than into failing services.
Ten councillors were asked their opinion on these figures and only three could see any benefits to this huge increase, and the three members of the public questioned all felt that this money could’ve gone towards improving services.
Ironically, the public image of Stoke-On-Trent City Council just gets steadily worse and it’s a simple fact that this will not be rectified by patronising local residents with propaganda aimed at raising their profile without making a concerted effort to raise their game.
It makes it worse that taxpayers in Stoke are shelling out to have the wool pulled over their eyes. Once again, Stoke-On-Trent Council are slapping a Ferrari badge on a Lada and expecting the electorate to buy it.
Many councillors have spoken about the lamentable state of Stoke’s finances, their services also seem to reflect this, so that this council can tend so conscientiously to the superficialities of promotion, rather than reaching for their buckets to bail this council out of trouble, shows an intrinsic lack of consideration and a real propensity toward bad management.