Rochdale Council – economical with the 'advertising' truth?

Councillor Greg Couzens

Rochdale Council has backtracked on what appeared to be a commitment not to seek commercial advertising. The Council was recently embarrassed to be found advertising Hebden Bridge and Todmorden markets on council employee payslips. At the same time the council were also taken to task by local businesses for treading on private sector toes by seeking commercial advertising for it’s in-house magazine.

In a hastily released statement following the revelations on Rochdale Online, Councillor Greg Couzens said: “Cabinet member for finance, Councillor Greg Couzens said: Discussions are now taking place to cease the external contract and pay slip advertising will now be looked after in house instead.

“This will be on the same basis that we deliver advertising in Local Matters which means advertising will be restricted to the council’s own services and partner organisations only.”

However, when asked for clarification, Councillor Couzens said via a spokesman for the Council communications: “Commercial advertising opportunities are looked at on a case by case basis and we propose to continue with this approach. Wherever possible we take a balanced view, so for example, we do not accept paid for commercial advertising in Local Matters as we understand that this would be of detriment to local media businesses. We accept advertising on roundabouts for example, as this helps offset the costs of delivering some of our key services. This is done in the interests of the taxpayer to enable us to provide the best possible return on investment. If we were to have a blanket ban on commercial advertising, it would not allow us to make informed decisions about individual areas of opportunity."