Observant Packet Newspaper Readers will have noticed the lack of Cornwall Council Planning and Highways Public Announcements in their local newspapers during the course of the last few weeks.

This has apparently been caused by a tendering process carried out by a faceless council officer or officers awarding from 1st May 2014, an annually renewable £160,000 to £220,000 per annum, four year advertising contract, exclusively to the less locally orientated Cornwall & Devon Media Group.

So from now on if you only take one of the weekly Packet series newspapers, and do not have accesss to the internet, tough, you won't have a clue what the County Council is up to in your area, which come to think of it, would probably suit the modus operandi of the largely dysfunctional Unitary Authority very well indeed, as despite the rhetoric of so-called “Localism”, yet another nail is hammered into the coffin of local democratic accountability.

For a similar period of time, the same observant Packet Readers might also have noticed the absence of the often council critical Skipper's column from the Letters page of the Packet Newspapers.

'Nuff said. Say no more.

Sarah & David Culling,
Falmouth
 

Editor’s note: As you will have noticed David, the Skipper has returned.