North East agency spending branded ‘obscene’

Apr 17 2009 by Adrian Pearson, The Journal

REGIONAL development bosses have been accused of wasting more than £240,000 of taxpayers’ money on hiring a team to read newspapers.

One North East regeneration officers tasked with closing the North South divide are spending the money on a media monitoring team to see what the world’s news channels and websites are writing about them.

As the region slips further into recession and jobless totals rise the agency will spend more than a quarter of a million pounds on checking news sources and issuing press releases.

Officers are looking for a company which will “assist in the effective monitoring and evaluation of all PR activity”.

The £240,000 contract is alongside a £30,000 position to collate and distribute PR material, which is money the Conservatives say could be better spent on safeguarding vulnerable jobs.

One North East has insisted the contracted work is vital to help them evaluate work on promoting the region throughout the world.

As well as a successful tourism department worth millions of pounds to the economy, officers have also attracted more than £200m a year in foreign investment, largely through selling the region as a business location.

In the job description, officers say “it is crucial for the agency to demonstrate the value of this PR activity through sophisticated evaluation methods”. They add that the “media monitoring service” will allow them to prove “the value of the PR team to the directors and board”.

Last night, shadow Tyneside minister Alan Duncan said no matter how much effort was going into promoting the region’s image, the latest market contract was “nothing short of wasteful”.

The Conservative MP said: “Quite frankly I think this is obscene.

“It is an affront to people all over the region who are either losing their job or looking to see how safe their job is and they are just wasting money like this. One person hired at say £30,000 a year could do this job to the level they needed, given that they are in effect an unelected arm of the Government.

“But to do it for nearly 10 times that amount shows they have lost any sense of perception.”

The Conservatives are already considering scrapping development agencies and handing their cash to council chiefs. But the North East could still keep its agency if enough people argue its merits.

Senior Newcastle Liberal Democrat Greg Stone said: “I don’t object to One North East spending money promoting the region, but this just looks like an expensive luxury to me.”

Page 2: ‘We are trying to spread the region’s message’