Tower Hamlets taxpayers to pay an extra �400,000 for council paper

By Else Kvist A Tory councillor has slammed the Town Hall for forcing council tax payers to cough up nearly an extra �500,000 for its free propaganda newssheet. Tim Archer

By Else Kvist

A Tory councillor has slammed the Town Hall for forcing council tax payers to cough up nearly an extra �400,000 for its free’ propaganda newssheet. Tim Archer said a budget report, shown to councillors last week, revealed that East End Life had suffered a �396,000 shortfall in advertising revenue due to the credit crunch.

The Blackwall and Cubitt Town councillor, who earlier in the year called for the “council propaganda paper” to be scrapped, said the shortfall would need to be offset by council taxpayers. Tower Hamlets council tax payers are already paying on average around �10 a year for the free sheet’, according to Archer.

Archer said: “Now people in Tower Hamlets will have to pay nearly another �400,000, this is money which could be spent on important services or projects.”

The council claims East End Life only costs taxpayers �118,000 a year. The rest of its �1.56 million cost, it says, is covered by advertising income.

But a newspaper investigation found that public-sector organisations paid a total of �980,000 to advertise in East End Life, making the true cost to the public purse �1.1 million a year.