Anne-Marie Trevelyan has invited local MP Sir Alan Beith to join her campaign to scrap the unwanted County Council magazine Northumberland News.
Anne-Marie, the prospective Conservative MP for the Berwick constituency, is calling on Sir Alan to support his Parliamentary colleagues in opposing free Council magazines. In Parliament last week, a group of Lib Dem MPs joined Conservatives in highlighting the damaging impact of free Council magazines on local newspapers.
Anne-Marie said, “I was very pleased to see that Lib Dem MPs now agree with Conservative Councils that have already scrapped free Council magazines elsewhere in the country. Conservatives here in Northumberland have been opposed to the publication of Northumberland News from the beginning. It is an insulting use of more than £200,000 a year of taxpayer money, whilst the Lib Dems promise savage cuts to frontline services. It is also a threat to our high quality and widely read local newspapers, which senior Lib Dems have inaccurately sought to present as having a low readership.”
Cllr Peter Jackson is the Leader of Northumberland Conservatives and the Leader of the opposition to the Lib Dem County Council Administration. Cllr Jackson has repeatedly spoken against Northumberland News as a sign that the Lib Dem Council Administration lacks the right priorities and political leadership.
Anne-Marie continued, “Cllr Peter Jackson has shown real leadership on this issue and I have campaigned alongside him to end this shocking waste of money. It would help our campaign to get rid of Northumberland News if Sir Alan were to make it a genuine cross-party effort. So I invite him to do so, or at least to express his opinion of the magazine.”
20th January 2010 Tags: Anne-Marie Trevelyan Berwick | 
