BEING accused of defamation by a council officer is a unique experience in my 30 years as a councillor, following my referral of the civic newspaper Metro News to the Standards Board and District Auditor for its extreme bias.

The paper is in direct contravention of the ODPM Code of Practice for such local authority publicity, and it was being delivered in the election period: up to May 4 in Walmersley.

I was surprised to see the press and media officer attacking me in your columns (May 28), and I wonder whether this could start a trend whereby council officers threaten legal action if opposition councillors express any criticisms relating to their area of work. This could certainly restrict the rights of the opposition.

If you criticise the cuts in bin collection, the officer responsible could take out a libel action; if you are heard criticising NCP car park attendants, the borough engineer could take you to court for slander.

For the record, I will repeat that the Metro News usually contains an obvious bias, but the last edition reached an extreme in time for the 'all-out' elections with 18 photographs of Labour politicians and zero of Conservatives, as well as at least 42 textual references to Labour politicians and none of the opposition. The balance of our council is 27 Labour to 20 opposition, so you might expect a better representation than 60-1 in favour of Labour.

The Code of Practice to which the officer refers insists that such papers (which we pay for through taxes) should be fair and balanced. It also says that policies should not be personalised yet Councillor Stella Smith, the architect of the bins, car parking, Silver Street speed humps, and the controversial market plans, has three photos and 16 references in the text. She is even given a section to discuss the issue of the bins with the senior officer responsible, but no opposition councillor is involved for "balance".

I criticised the Labour administration in general for this publication, and Councillor Wayne Campbell in particular as the cabinet member responsible for communications, but if the officer concerned wishes to claim the responsibility for the publication, that is his decision.

If we take control of Bury Council, I promise that we will set about reducing the never-ending flow of propaganda from the town hall.

COUNCILLOR ROY-E.

WALKER,

Conservative leader,

Bury Council