Jude WinterEast Midlands and
Anna WhittakerNottingham political reporter
BBC
The council said it would now send press releases to the Nottingham Post
Reform UK-led Nottinghamshire County Council appears to have lifted a ban on a local newspaper.
County council leader Mick Barton banned the Nottingham Post and its online arm, Nottinghamshire Live, from speaking to him and other councillors “with immediate effect” on 28 August.
Law firm CMS LLP served the council with a legal letter on Tuesday on behalf of Reach, the organisation that runs the publisher, calling for the ban to be withdrawn in full.
The county council’s team manager for litigation, Geoff Russell, responded to the letter on Thursday and said it would now provide the Post with press releases and invite them to council events.
However, the Post said it remained “unclear” whether Barton would now speak to them, but added they were “committed to building a working relationship going forward”.
Barton has been approached for comment.
Council leader Mick Barton has said his door is “always open” to the local newspaper, despite refusing to speak to its reporters
According to the Post, the ban was prompted by an article about local government reorganisation, written by its agenda editor Oliver Pridmore.
The authority also stopped sending press releases to the publication and inviting them to council events.
But Barton later clarified the ban only applied to the issuing of press releases and to him personally.
Barton later lifted the ban for the three BBC-funded Local Democracy Reporting Service journalists who work out of the publication.
The Post believed the ban was in breach of local government regulations, Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights – in relation to freedom of expression – and the council’s own councillor code of conduct.
“I’m pleased this unprecedented ban has been lifted and the situation finally resolved, so that we can continue to get on with our jobs as we always have done,” said senior editor Natalie Fahy.
“That means asking questions of elected council officials, having access to publicly-funded information and events and holding them to account on behalf of our communities in Nottinghamshire.”
