Media and publicity protocols
How we handle press releases and enquiries and what you can expect from the content, style, distribution and design of our publicity.
Councillors and officers have a duty to inform and communicate effectively with people.
Code of practice for local authority publicity
When communicating with residents, we aim to conform to the GOV.UK - Recommended code of practice for local authority publicity
This code covers the rules around content and style of publicity, dissemination, advertising, promotion of individual councillors and restrictions that come into force during any election period.
We'll try to make any publicity describing the council's policies, aims and activities as objective as possible, concentrating on facts or explanation or both. Any comments we give will be objective, balanced, informative and accurate.
News releases
Our news releases are written by a member of the Communications Team and provide information about the council and its services. We'll ensure that our news releases will be:
- factual and expressed in plain English
- free of party political bias
We'll also only use an embargo on a press release or statement when we consider it to be absolutely essential.
Media enquiries
You can send any media enquiries directly to the Communications Team. We will be mindful of your deadlines and will try to use an appropriate, named spokesperson in any quotes we provide, wherever possible.
Publicity during the pre-election period
During the six-week pre-election period, we'll take particular care to ensure that laws surrounding local government publicity are not breached.
Branding and logos
Our partners and other bodies that we support are welcome to use our logo. We've produced a corporate design and style guide which contains information on using our logo, our preferred fonts and other branding guidelines.