Tameside Council has launched a new web-based news programme that aims to give local residents a rundown of all the borough’s council-related news in a minute long broadcast. The weekly service, first aired on 4 April, has already attracted online opprobrium due to its perceived bias and running costs.
According to the 60 Second homepage the bulletin has been created “in response to a demand for web-based information about the council.”
However, political blog Tameside Eye has noted that the service has “raised a few eyebrows across many of the political parties” as it has been launched only a month before the local elections and, according to the blogger, is using tax-payer’s money to seemingly promote the political needs of the incumbent council.
With this in mind Tameside Eye submitted a Freedom of Information request to determine exactly how much each bulletin was costing.
The response from the council’s assistant chief executive, and director for ICT and transformational services, Tim Rainey, noted that the total cost was £182 per episode – translating to £9464 a year, and £3.03 a second.
This led Tameside Eye to ask if there was anything better that the money could be spent on to benefit the people of Tameside.
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