There's so much to talk about this week - council newspapers, public sector websites being cut and reviews of communications functions!

Let's start though with a quick reflection of last week's emergency budget which I mentioned in a previous blog post.

You'll probably recall my wish list - which clearly was based in cloud-cuckoo land.  But, to be honest even a doom and gloom list from the Chancellor would have been good.  We know that pretty challenging, no, let's be honest and say 'horrific' cuts are on the way, but after last week we're still in the dark really.

I felt he didn't really tell us much!

The spending review in the autumn will hopefully give us the details we need to make concrete decisions.  In the meantime there's plenty we can do.

In the next few days the chief executive of my council is going to write to all members of staff to explain how the council is reacting to the budget cuts and what might be on the horizon.

His letter will also ask for their help.  Many of our people are involved in delivering front-line services.  They're at the 'coal face' and can most likely see where there's potential for savings to be made.

This is a good and welcome way of doing things and means we sort of become masters of our own destiny.  We need to face up to the fact that the future is far from bright (it's certainly not orange).  

But, if my colleagues and I can collectively come up with some great ideas about how we can minimise the effect of the situation we find ourselves in, then that's got to be a positive.

My team is going to start the ball rolling on this.

We've been asked to lead a review of the council's entire communications functions with a view to making efficiencies across the council.

We're one of several areas of the council that are being looked at.  The council’s corporate leadership team has agreed to progress urgent reviews of these and other similar functions in order to rationalise what we do.

For me personally, I think it makes sense given where we find ourselves.

Next this week ... council newspapers.

Eric Pickles, the secretary of state for local government wrote an article in Saturday's Guardian newspaper in which he talked about toughening the rules on local council publications.

He said he wants crack down on those councils that publish something weekly which can't really be distinguished from the local independent media.

Well, here's a revelation - I agree with you Mr Pickles.

By 'those councils' he means, well, just six actually.  Most are in London and the southeast.  The fact that they are printing and publishing weekly 'freesheets' which include film reviews, TV listings and sports coverage (among other items) is the main reason why they are being targeted for criticism.

The vast majority of local authorities (ours included) publish perhaps four or six times a year and manage to restrict themselves to council information only.

Yes, there is always going to be a debate about whether 15p per edition (in our case) is a good use of taxpayers’ money, but at least we could hardly be accused of damaging the local media.

We’re certainly not trying to chase its limited advertising incomes!

In fact, senior people from the Johnston Press have told me they are entirely relaxed about our paper because they don't feel that their revenues are threatened.

Mr Pickles says in his article: "Local newspapers are absolutely vital to a thriving democracy. They are key to open and transparent government where people can hold their council to account."

I agree entirely and I'm very keen we support our local media.   There's no chance my council would ever try and be the 'new YEP'.

Public sector websites now.

The Government announced last week that it is to close numerous public sector websites which it believes are too expensive and don't provide value for money.
One of those in the firing line promotes chips.

Ministers say they are too many sites which appear to be there for 'vanity reasons only' and they have to go.

I'm embarrassed to report that Leeds City Council has dozens of subsites, some of which have sprung up from seemingly nowhere.

However, on this one, we are ahead of Government thinking.  Our leaders – political and officer – have already taken a view that the time has come for us to take stock and close down what we don't need anymore.  

Clearly, there needs to be some evaluation of these sites, but we know we can't continue to justify the cost of having dozens of websites all over the place.

It'll be easier when we launch our new leeds.gov.uk site next year, because we can start afresh and better plan what content and information we need on it.