Row over council poster campaign

The county council said the posters are solely for public information

A poster campaign being run by a council to advertise its services has been criticised as "misleading".

Durham County Council has put up posters to inform people about the services it provides.

But six district councils have hit out at the adverts and claim they are being used to sway opinion in the forthcoming regional assembly referendum.

But the county council says the posters are simply to tell people clearly what services they provide.

The councils include Chester-le-Street District, Derwentside District, District of Easington, Sedgefield Borough, Teesdale District and Wear Valley District.

The group says it wants three separate unitary councils in County Durham if there is a yes vote in the regional assembly referendum.

'Improve clarity'

Easington District Council deputy leader, Councillor Robin Todd, said: "With the county council fighting at the moment to get its preferred option of one unitary council for County Durham on the forthcoming referendum ballot skip, we have to question the council's motives for releasing these advertisements at this time."

Among the issues the councils are complaining about are accommodation for older people, rubbish collection and job creation.

Mr Todd said: "We feel that some of these advertisements are misleading, and whilst what they are saying is not untrue, they do make it sound like these services are provided solely by the council when that is clearly not the case."

But Durham County Council rejected the claims.

Council leader Councillor Ken Manton said: "It's difficult to see how anyone could interpret this as anything other than a public information campaign to reduce confusion and improve clarity over the provision of county council services.

"The posters clearly tell people what services we currently provide - and nothing more."

He said last year, Comprehensive Performance Assessment inspectors said it needed to improve the way it informed the public about what it does and the posters were in response to the recommendations.