Hackney Council confirms identity of freesheet’s publishers after delay to ‘get to the bottom of that’
Hackney Today has been accused of competing with local papers
Hackney Council has confirmed the identity of the publishers of its taxpayer-funded weekly freesheet after initially being unable to “get to the bottom of that”.
Hackney Today‘s publisher is listed in official documents as “The Mayor and Burgesses of Hackney”.
But when the Citizen asked Hackney Council who the Burgesses are on 22 August, the council didn’t respond for over a week and then replied on 29 August that it did not know.
A spokesperson said: “We’re still trying to get to the bottom of that.”
After the Citizen published the mystery in its 6 September print edition and online on 8 September, a reader commented: “All London authorities’ official legal titles are ‘The Mayor and Burgesses of the London Borough of X’.
“This is due to London boroughs’ legal entity not being the council, but the inhabitants incorporated as a legal entity by royal charter, a process that was abolished elsewhere in England and Wales under the Local Government Act 1972.”
This information appears to have come from Wikipedia. Meanwhile, Bill Parry-Davies of Dowse & Co. Solicitors told the Citizen: “Mayor and Burgesses of Hackney are the legal name for the council, which is now a statutory corporation.
Hackney Council confirmed the ‘Burgesses’ are Hackney’s councillors
“They are the legal party in litigation, legal documents e.g. leases, contracts etc.”
Hackney Council confirmed this was the “correct” definition of the Burgesses on 14 September, after the Citizen sent the council’s press office this information.
A spokesperson said: “The definition of ‘Burgesses’ you shared is correct.”
Hackney Today, which costs more than £400,000 each year to produce, is currently defying a government order to be cut back to quarterly publication.
Hackney Council has been accused by the Citizen and rival paper Hackney Gazette of competing unfairly with local papers for commercial advertising. The council defends Hackney Today as a cheap way to give information to Hackney residents.
The Citizen recently revealed how Hackney Today might not fit the legal definition of a newspaper, and does not appear “fortnightly” as claimed, potentially misleading the public and advertisers.
Hackney Council responded that based on internal legal advice it “takes the view that there has been no breach of the law”.
Fully in support of Hackney Today. A non-profit publication full of information for local people, produced by the council. No surprise the government are scaling back this publication to let more ad cash flow to private publishers.
Hackney Citizen is for hipsters who buy £6 loaves of sourdough and £3.50 cups of brown water at the cafes where it is given away.
Hackney Today is for normal, old school tenants who buy they bread at Gregs, and drink their tea at home.
Would the hipsters really want their arty grazing material full of the stuff Today carries about what the “common people” are upto on the estates?
Would Today readers have any interest in the stuff the hipster rag carries?
Apart from trying to get your mits on some or all of the £400,000 a year you say it costs to distribute the information sheet around all the estates, what exactly are you suggesting?
That Today readers bend over even further and accept the gentrification agenda?
Surely it’s like Vogue magazine attacking OK! magazine because the latter’s not sharing its advertising with it?
So, say you are successful and you destroy Hackney Today, how and where are the “common people” going to get access to the information it used to carry?
Stick to your own market, and start charging the luvvies for your rag if you are not making enough to survive. See if they really care … because sure as hell the estates don’t.
You, your articles, and your advertisers are not relevant to their lives at all.
You’re just trying to do to information what the property speculators have done to property prices.
Good to know the council aren’t wasting tax payer money by taking the time to respond to these increasingly tedious requests from the Citizen. This debate is becoming more and more self indulgent, only of concern to the Citizen. I’m sure readers of all local papers appreciate the diversity of new sources, even though Hackney Today is the council mouthpiece (and people know this).
Keep pushing the council on the real issues Citizen, but please let this one drop.
You haven’t got to the bottom of anything. Your articles are motivated by greed not finding news worthy stories. It really is a sad day when a newspaper is making the news rather than writing the news.