"Free" Council paper

[vrdiver]

Just had a Cheshire West & Chester news paper (as in, local events and discussion topics) pushed through the letterbox.

The banner at the top declares "Delivered FREE to every home in west Cheshire".

Was it really? I just don't see the council recruiting a bunch of volunteers to go round delivering papers. If it was paid for from the adverts it holds, then it's not free, but "cost neutral" as the advertising revenue would have been spent on delivery... Or perhaps it's pushed through the door by community service offenders? Volunteer time or offender time that has been lost and is, therefore, a cost elsewhere.

there is no mention of the cost of producing the thing, nor of the hours of paid time that council employees have spent away from their actual role.

I don't object to the idea of a council paper, but I do object to pretending it's "free".

Council tax went up by more than the rate of inflation (again) this year. I'd prefer a bit of transparency as to where the money goes, even on the small projects like this one.

[scotia]

Was it really? I just don't see the council recruiting a bunch of volunteers to go round delivering papers.

We (myself & wife) volunteered to go round delivering our community council newsletter.

[bungeejumper]

Similar thing with the "free" glossy newspapers that we get from our local water board, telling us everything we don't need to know about what they're doing. (But nothing about why we're still on the 120 year old cast iron Victorian supply pipes, which leak mightily and which carry so many health bugs that they have to pump in enough chemical additives to murder a Russian dissident. Tapwater tastes foul, but since we're not in a major town nobody seems to think it's an issue.)

I believe the technical term for these glitzy public relations freebies is "victimless crime." Somebody else is paying, and it isn't transparently clear who, so what the hell, let's make it look like we're doing something.

BJ

[Dod101]

Just had a Cheshire West & Chester news paper (as in, local events and discussion topics) pushed through the letterbox.

The banner at the top declares "Delivered FREE to every home in west Cheshire.

Well from what you say it was delivered free to you and therefore it may be that it was delivered free to every other home in West Cheshire. Unless you have evidence to the contrary I think that is a fair assumption. So the banner was correct at least in one sense. Whether the person/agency making the delivery is unpaid is another matter.

Dod

[Lootman]

Just had a Cheshire West & Chester news paper (as in, local events and discussion topics) pushed through the letterbox. The banner at the top declares "Delivered FREE to every home in west Cheshire.

Well from what you say it was delivered free to you and therefore it may be that it was delivered free to every other home in West Cheshire. Unless you have evidence to the contrary I think that is a fair assumption. So the banner was correct at least in one sense. Whether the person/agency making the delivery is unpaid is another matter.

Isn't that a bit like saying the NHS is "free"?

It may be "free" at the point of delivery, but in reality it is insanely and probably unsustainably expensive to provide.

The word "free", in contemporary British parlance, simply means that some other mug is paying for it.

That said, given the fancy new offices my Council has, and it's "80K a year plus car Chief Diversity Officer", I'd say a "free" paper is the least of the waste.

[vrdiver]

Well from what you say it was delivered free to you
Dod

No. No and No again!
Whilst I didn't have the choice of whether it was stuffed through my letter box, and I wasn't charged for it at the point of delivery, I think I've paid for it in my council tax, which means it wasn't delivered for "free"...

Since this is a County paper, not a village or parish affair, I'm not buying the "volunteer delivery" explanation that scotia offered (although kudos to him and his wife for volunteering in their community).

VRD

[Dod101]

Yes I know! I was trying to be slightly tongue in cheek and being truly literal. I totally agree though that clearly someone is paying and since the Council's only money tree is the central Government or the Council tax payer I assume any cost will fall on them but you never know; if there are ads in it , it might be that it is paying for itself if not making a profit. I get a local booklet every three months or so, delivered free to me, full of ads with the odd bit of useful info/news, and I am certain that the publisher/producer is not doing it for the good of the locality without getting something out of it.

Dod