Coleraine Council rebuffs media reports on Public Relations bill

In a report by the Belfast Telegraph last week, figures were published which showed that Northern Ireland's 26 councils have been splashing out 5 million a year on public relations between them.

Figures provided to Upper Bann MLA Dolores Kelly at the Assembly included annual council spending totals for public relations. These added up to 5,128,474 in 2008/09 — a rise on the previous year's tally of 4,924,945.

The report said that the biggest PR spender was Belfast City Council, which has the largest population. Its public relations outlay in 2008/09 was 1,462,512.

Next highest in the year was Coleraine with 465,849 - the report read.

The Upper Bann MLA had also asked at the Assembly for a breakdown of senior management costs and legal services bills at each of the 26 councils.

But, replying to her written questions, Environment Minister Edwin Poots said this information could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost.

Ms Kelly said a rethink was needed on how ratepayers' money was used and whether value for money was being secured. She said her concern was to ensure that money remained available for key council services.

However, a spokeswoman for Coleraine Borough Council said: "The expenditure details published in the Belfast Telegraph with regards to public relations and promotions is based on a question from the Environment Committee to the Minister of Environment, Edwin Poots.

"The question requested public relations expenditure, including staff and resources, and advertising spend, in each of the last two financial years.

"The nature of the open-ended question could potentially have resulted in varied responses from other local authorities.

"The figure Coleraine Borough Council provided included the total spend of the following budgets; public relations, tourism and marketing, and advertising.

"This figure also includes staff costs for these service areas and contributions to outside organisations who also promote the Borough and the North Coast."