THE LEADER of Thurrock Council has called the amount of questions a Thurrock newspaper asks as “excessive”.
Councillor Rob Gledhill (Conservative) made the comments at a meeting of the General Services Committee.
At the heart of his comments (which you can hear below) was a commitment for the council to be more robust with the press as well as the public in defending the reputation of the council.
YT understands that the “excessive” questions jibe may be directed at the Thurrock Independent newspaper. Since the paper launched in 2017, it has not held back in scrutinising the council.
Cllr Gledhill also took the time to criticise the Thurrock Gazette and a story it had run recently.
Last year, a mooted new communciation strategy by cllr Gledhill’s council gained national media attention after it had proposed barring non-members of press regulators (The Guardian, Financial Times) from the council press desk at meetings as well as “disengaging” from press who misrepresent them. Those proposals were eventually changed.
Maybe the media should be owned by the Conservative party that way the leader can have a positive image.
Maybe we can flush the Labour votes down the toilet during the election so the Conservative party has a positive local media image.
For God’s sake lets vote this inept Councillor out asap.
He shouldn’t even be anywhere near the press, the man’s an idiot.