Council newspaper - 'A waste of time, of paper and of money'

THERE's a twisted irony in the fact that school kids are to be asked to hand over £10 for a text book at a time when the city is wasting £200,000 a year on what amounts to nothing more than a vanity publication.

The council will deny any connection, saying that the money spent writing, designing, printing and distributing its Outlook "newspaper" would not otherwise be spent on school books.

Which rather begs the question: if not, why not?

After all, at a time when every local authority is facing up to brutal spending cuts, Edinburgh is looking to fill a 90 million budget black hole over three years.

Every council department has been ordered to make cuts, and in recent weeks the News has revealed plans to close nurseries and care homes, cut bin collections and even raise the council tax.

Yesterday we told how free swimming is to be axed for kids aged five to 12 at city pools, and today we reveal that the final death knell is sounding for the BlindCraft charity and workshop.

Yet, alone in this litany of cuts and axed services, one department seems to sail on regardless - the council's communications and marketing team with its annual budget of 2m.

Of course councils, like all organisations, need to communicate what they do to their customers. But rather than hitting school kids and OAPs, the first things to go in troubled economic times should be peripheral stuff which is of little measurable value.

Outlook fits the bill exactly: a waste of time, a waste of paper and, most of all, a waste of our money. Few residents - who ultimately pay for it - even read it; those who do say it is little more than stale propaganda.

The council points out that the money it spends on communications is a tiny fraction of its 1 billion budget. And, yes, the introduction of cash deposits for textbooks at Holy Rood High may be more about getting them back in one piece than about helping deliver massive budget cuts in education.

But the 200,000 spent on Outlook would buy 10,000 more textbooks for our schools, never mind paying for the deposits on them.

As a "free" publication which neither breaks news nor carries any significant advertising, Outlook is no rival to the News. We just think the money could be much better spent.

If you agree, let us know - and tell your councillors too. Remember their answer as the axe falls on services, and when the next local elections come in 2012. We will.