In a move that would make even a Downing Street comms director blush, Wealden District Council has hired a PR agency. Not to engage residents on council priorities. Not to communicate planning reform. No, it’s to “shine a light on positive local stories.” Apparently, the solution to failure is better photography.
This announcement wasn’t made to councillors. It wasn’t voted on. It appeared, unceremoniously, in a blog post. On the PR agency’s own website (you can read it here). You’d think that after the massive failures under Rachel Millward’s leadership in December that lessons would have been learned about keeping the wider council informed (and at the very least consulted) about the rationale for hiring yet more external advisors to do what we already have people to do in the council. Only last week we were informed that the Council is on the hunt for a new employee to “continue to promote the great work the council is doing to residents and external partners.”. When compared to the brief (or implied brief) that PRG Media has highlighted, it looks like duplication of effort (and cost).
This is not about communication. It’s about stage-managed spin, a press operation masquerading as community engagement.
The worst year in Wealden’s 50-Year history
Let’s not beat around the bush: this past year has been the most disastrously incompetent in the council’s five-decade history.
Under Green Party Cllr Rachel Millward’s leadership, we’ve witnessed:
- Freedom of Information obstruction (including spending money to hire lawyers to protect reputation of the Green led administration)
- Council Tax taken early from 17,500 residents at Christmas
- Councillor pay rises above independent body recommendations
- The creation of a “new” allowance for the Deputy Leader of £8,000
- £82,000 spent on climate reports
- A rewritten constitution to weaken democratic representation that even her own colleagues didn’t read or understand before voting it through
- Evasive responses to legitimate questions
- Allocating £450,000 for councillors to spend on initiatives – the catch being that any expenditure must align with the “Council Strategy” which, funnily enough, has “climate change” as its principal objective (amongst other things).
And now, to top it all off, a PR firm has been hired to paint over the cracks with taxpayer money.
The Planning Power Grab
One of the most damagingly egregious legacies of this administration has been its assault on the Planning system at Wealden and democratic participation therein. Under Millward’s Leadership and assisted by Labour councillor Daniel Manvell they:
- Reduced Planning Committee sizes
- Sidelined experienced councillors
- Threatened councillors with (potential) solo defence at appeal if they go against officer recommendations – making it less likely that councillors will oppose applications they think are unsuitable
This isn’t reform. It’s regression. No amount of PR is going to be able to distract from the consequences of this decision on the beautiful countryside we all know and love.
Labour Cllr Manvell: advancing national policy without a mandate
Adding to the dysfunction is Labour Cllr Daniel Manvell (who chaired the constitutional review working party), implementing Labour Party national policies locally, before they’ve even passed through Parliament or been incorporated into either primary or secondary legislation. Getting ahead of the Labour curve at the expense of the people who elected him.
Residents didn’t vote for a Westminster experiment. They voted for competent, local service delivery.
The communications portfolio holder hires PR, for herself
Cllr Millward, who hilariously remains Portfolio Holder for Communications, is now overseeing the PR firm and operation commissioned to clean up her fantastic mess. This is not just a conflict of interest, it’s a scandal hiding in plain sight. Following a planned leadership switch with Lib Dem Cllr James Partridge, Millward is now Deputy Leader (don’t forget the additional £8,000 per year allowance paid to her and that she voted for).
The faces changed, but the dysfunction remains.
A Council soon to be abolished… and still spending on PR
Wealden District Council is scheduled for dissolution by 2028 as part of Labour’s Local Government Reorganization Program. So why launch a taxpayer-funded PR campaign? Unless it’s to shore up the electoral prospects of the Alliance parties before the curtain falls.
Thankfully, there is a by-election looming on July 10th in Horam following the resignation of a Green Party councillor who had been doing her very best Scarlet Pimpernel impression for a year (50% of her served term), emerging only to obediently vote with the Alliance on measures that she herself wouldn’t need to suffer the consequences of. No such luck for the rest of us, or, more importantly, for Wealden residents.
Experience optional, loyalty essential
Many of the councilors now steering Wealden through its worst period in living memory arrived in office with little experience in governance, planning, or financial oversight. But experience, it seems, was never the point. What matters is allegiance; to the group, not the public. Competence is optional; compliance is essential. This has created an environment where ideology often trumps insight and where the consequences of decisions are secondary to maintaining a united front. It’s not leadership. It’s managed decline with a mission statement.
And in such an environment, it becomes all too easy for people with personal ambition and an ideological agenda to take center stage. When a bloc will vote as instructed, unchecked by scrutiny or challenge, it provides the perfect platform for them to elevate themselves while pursuing a brand of activist politics that bears little relation to the day-to-day responsibilities of local government. Residents become an afterthought in a theater of self-promotion.
Horam by-election: A chance for change
If the Alliance fails to win the Horam by-election, its majority reduces to just one. That’s how fragile their grip on power is.
Get out and vote. Don’t let the spin win.
Conclusion: PR can’t fix what politics broke
A healthy council earns trust by governing well not by hiring PR firms to obscure failure. Wealden is failing and they’re spending your own money in a cynical attempt to convince you it’s not happening.
Of course, one final “benefit” of hiring external advisors is that when things go wrong (and if the Alliance’s past record is anything to go by they certainly will), it ensures you can point the finger at the advisor in an attempt to blame someone other than yourself. Residents of Wealden are not that naïve.
For every news story you see now, you may wonder, what’s the real cost and how much of your council tax is being spent to promote the message?
I am always happy to correct factually inaccurate material in my posts. Please contact me should you identify such inaccuracy.
5 responses to “Wealden’s spin machine: taxpayer-funded PR to polish the wreckage of a catastrophic year”
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It’s criminal what the so called ‘Alliance’ have been getting away with since taking power two years ago. Giving away reserves, our money, to vanity projects and now hiring a private PR company to blow their trumpet, when they have their own experienced communications team!
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Criminal is understating the events. Every single participant in the Alliance for “ Wealden” has and continues to ignore residents. I just hope beyond all hope that Horam residents see the path forward, not a Green path
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This needs to be compulsory reading material for all Horam residents. Many are in horror of what the Green led alliance are doing to them in the draft local plan. Over 1000 more houses in their village. This a “ Green” initiative backed by their fellow Labour councillors.
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Some very wise and honest words spoken. As every day passes its showing just how crooked and useless this Alliance are. They are only in it for their own political egos and nothing for the electorate. How dare they vote through an increase of £8K allowance when budgets are so tight and there is the constant threat of having to make cut backs or increase taxes every April. How dare they waste large sums of money on external media companies when Wealden have what I also have believed, was a perfectly competent in house media team but obviously I was wrong!! Its time for change and hopefully that will start with Horam but its important that this post is spread far and wide to every single household in Wealden and let the people wake up to exactly what is going on behind their backs and with THEIR money. Keep up these informative posts.
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When this council was elected, the district voted for change from an administration which had become deaf to the will of the people.
Nothing changed apart from the colour of the rosettes.
The party political structure needs to be dismantled, along with the back room pacts and power grabbing deals.
Kick party politics into touch and let’s hope Horam sees sense and goes with an independent candidate!
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