The spat between the council and the paper originates in the refusal of WC to consider saving costs on statutory notices by putting them in the free press rather than the expensive Wiltshire Times.

Because of what WC Conservatives consider to be biased reporting of the matter, the administration is now taking the paper off the circulation list for press releases, and won’t reply to any requests for information from them.

The council’s communications team only gets about four enquiries per day from the press anyway, and press releases are published on the WC website for anyone to see, so the sanctions are unlikely to cause a problem for the paper.

In a letter to the MIN, WC points out that an article on the subject didn’t include scripted quotes from Conservative councillors and was therefore biased.

Most media outlets in the county publish WC press releases without editing or questioning them, and this obsequious approach is approved of by WC.

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