A COUNCIL publication has been labelled as an ‘expensive back slapping scheme’ for the Labour party after it was revealed it has cost more than £160,000 to produce in the past three years.

The Bolton Scene is a council magazine published four times a year which the authority describes as its ‘main way of telling the public about its services’ and is delivered to every household in the borough.

A Freedom of Information Request made by the town’s Liberal Democrat party has revealed that the costs of printing and delivering the Bolton Scene publication has cost £163,682.85 over the past three financial years.

The request — made by Lib Dem chairman Kevin Walsh — also asked how much money the publication made back in terms of advertising revenue during that same period.

The figures revealed that the Scene brought in a total of £221,760 in advertising cash during that period — which would suggest that the magazine has more than paid for itself.

However, in his request Mr Walsh asked for that figure to be broken down separately into money made from internal and external advertising — to see whether the cash was coming from outside firms or from within the council coffers.

The data shows that of the £221,760, just £79,010 was made from external advertising, which he asserts results in a net loss of £85,672.85 for the authority.

Mr Walsh said: “This is yet another absolutely shocking waste of tax payer money by the Council. At a time when they are making massive cuts to services for children, families and the disabled - to find that they are spending over fifty thousand pounds a year on what is little more than pro-Labour propaganda is a disgrace.

“With the recent questions being asked regarding the £300,000 Asons grant on top of the £90,000 pay off to the last chief executive and the attempts to hide the identity of the Labour Councillor who failed to pay their council tax, to find that even more money has been wasted on a newsletter that seeks to justify and ‘celebrate’ Labour’s decision making, how can residents trust anything this Council does?

“It’s time this expensive Labour back-slapping scheme was shelved and the cash given towards font-line service delivery instead”

In response a council spokesman said: “Bolton Scene is a key council publication that enables us to communicate important information about services.

“This is particularly important at times of change, when our customers need to be supported and kept informed.”

“At approximately 45p per household per year for 96 pages of information it is a very cost-effective way of fulfilling these responsibilities and regularly reaching all 120,000 plus households in the borough.

“Scene is entirely self-financing and we are restricted by government guidelines as to the amount of external advertising and number of editions, so we don’t take income away from other newspapers.”

Read the Bolton Scene at bolton.gov.uk/website/Pages/Councilpublications