Bristol councillors call to drop place-making director and publication
Bristol City Council is understood to be set to review the role of Mike Bennett, its place making director, and could also scrap a Council-run newspaper that costs taxpayers £208,000, ahead of its 2011/2012 budget.
A source has told The Drum that the Liberal Democrat-dominated Bristol City Council has been asked to make £28 million in savings for its 2011/12 budget and opposition parties are welcome to make suggestions as part of the process.
“A working group has been set up to look at communication issues which is due to meet in April 2011,” said a Council source.
“Yes, amendments have been put in by opposition parties but unless these are agreed, then it will be a question of Cabinet looking at what suggestions the working group comes up with.”
Money saving suggestions proposed by opposition councilors for the forthcoming budget are thought to include a review of the role of place-making director Mike Bennett, managing director of e3, who moved into his current role from heading up Bristol Media last September.
Bennett was given the task of helping to strengthen and promote the city’s assets and sell them as a point-of-difference in order to give the city a competitive advantage and secure economic growth.
Speaking before this week’s lantern launch on the Bristol Downs, Bennett said of his role: “As part of my new role as Place Making Director, I will be looking to organise regular events that animate Bristol and help raise its profile in an effort to attract more green and digital industries to the area.”
However, Labour and Conservative opposition Councillors have both suggested scrapping the role, which will currently cost the authority £72,000 over a two-year period.
Opposition Councillors have also demanded the Council scrap the Our City Council-run newspaper, on the basis that it is nothing more than Council propaganda and that the funding could be used to support frontline services.
The Council argued that the publication is apolitical and reports upon important issues that are sometimes not deemed newsworthy by the local press. It also points out that the local media is not always factually correct in its reporting of Council news.
“The council newsletter serves the authority, regardless of what administration is in power and provides factual information designed to promote the council's services,” said a spokesman for the Council.
“The council has a duty to communicate with all its citizens, to make them aware, for example, of consultation on important issues such as the proposals for the city's green spaces so that they can exercise their democratic right to have their say.”