Town Council calls for a fair go
in the local press

Barkly News Pictorial was invited to the Town Hall to meet the Council.
Paul Cockram reports what happened ...

I had received a letter requesting my attendance at the Council Chambers between 6 and 6.30pm on Friday 26th February. There was no mention in the letter of the reason.
When I arrived the Council was in session and Barry Nattrass, who was there as the representative of the Tennant & District Times was waiting eagerly to find out why he too had been invited.
The normal Council business having been concluded, the Mayor invited Barry and myself to sit at the table. We sat and waited.
"Have you got any questions?" asked the Mayor, Paul Ruger.
"Um..." said Barry Nattrass, at a loss for words for what would turn out to be the last time for the next thirty minutes.
"I've got a question," I ventured. "Why did you invite us to this meeting?"
Several voices cried as one.
"To ask you to stop writing all these damaging allegations about the Council," is a polite amalgam of what they said, each councillor fixing Barry Nattrass with a deathray glare.
"Hey, I don't write the paper - I don't even edit it," replied Barry. "I told the editor she should have come but she doesn't listen to what I say, so what can I do?"
Derek Crump had his turn: "What gets us is having to read all this garbage in the paper from people who never come to us with their concerns." He waved airily at the visitor's seats. "Look! No-one there, there's never anyone there; they don't come to see how the Council operates, they just accuse us as 'concerned ratepayers' in the newspaper."
"Don't you think there should be some sort of limit on the number of bad news stories you run about the Council?" ventured Daryl Heriot.
"None at all," replied Barry Nattrass. "We aren't writing the stories, we're just publishing letters to the editor."
"But you don't check them with us first," complained Ali Khan and the Mayor more or less together. "You should come to us when you receive criticisms of the Council so we have a chance to answer the accusations."
At this point I got my one, and just about only, chance to have a say to point out the difficulties in allowing rights-of-reply in the same issue to a letter to the editor. It's not usually done. If a person or organisation feels hard done by in the letters page it's enough to ask of a publication that it offers a right to reply in the next edition.
"But surely it is the role of the town newspaper to present the town in a positive and professional way," reasoned Ali Khan.
"No," replied Barry Nattrass. "The role of our newspaper is to earn us a living. That is all. You've got your own publication, the 'Nugget Man News' to run your stories in. We don't see any good-news stories in it about us."
"That's a good point mate," announced Barry Sharples cheerily; an interpretation which probably startled most people in the room. After all, it is a bit of an ask to compare a photocopied, infrequent newsletter with a newspaper.
A lot more was said but not a lot more was gained. It is after all an exercise in shooting the messenger to take the press to task for reporting what people are saying. Yet it is easy to see what nettles the Council.
Anonymous 'concerned ratepayers' make continual attacks on the Council and its employees with lots of innuendo and not much substance. If the Council is guilty of wrongdoing it must be challenged on the record by people who are able to substantiate their accusations in public.
It will be interesting to see what election commitments the candidates come up with for the seat vacated by Tony Boulter.
It can't do any harm at all to have a fresh face on the Council to put deserving minds at rest and to put the wind up anyone with something to hide.