Monday, January 08, 2007

The other story from Hammersmith and Fulham Council today

This morning, as many people will know, Hammersmith and Fulham Council announced that they are cutting Council Tax by 3%. A large proportion of the blogosphere wrote about it, quite rightly, with significant fanfare. After all, H&F is bucking the trend of inflation busting rises like the rest of London.

There was a post by Iain, Tim Roll-Pickering, Caroline Hunt, ConservativeHome, Benedict White and by me on Anyone But Ken. The news that a Council was cutting Council Tax is quite revolutionary these days but there is, possibly, an even quieter revolution going on here.

Behind the headline that Hammersmith may have the highest Council Tax cut in the country (and certainly in London), they have also become the first Council (I think) to formally engage the blogosphere after this morning's Council Tax press release was sent to a significant number of bloggers. Having spoken with H&F's press office it appears that this represents a new policy on their part to directly engage with the wider electorate through the use of new media.

Hammersmith and Fulham appear to not only be the torchbearer for Council tax reduction, but are also leading the way in tapping into the power that the blogosphere can provide for communicating news outside the realm of the traditional forms.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

And there was me think I was speacial :(

(Goes off in a sulk)

Actually I think it is a great idea as you then get the news out quick, don't have to suck up to journo's and engage with a wider public.

Good move on their part.

Praguetory said...

It is a v smart move. Oh dear - before you know it the papers will be by-passed altogether.

Anonymous said...

As I keep saying: heads,arses,out,of,angels, heads,of,pins, dancing, on, how, many - re-arrange
Silly, silly boys.

Jeff said...

Don't think Keith Waterhouse would agree with you on the the blog point

Fahrenheit said...

Cool, I'll know I've 'arrived' when my blog gets onto the H&F press office distribution list ;-P

F

(In seriousness though, a very smart move by them, but I wonder whether we will eventually end up being deluged with these?)

Anonymous said...

I wondered why I was sent the press release too. Good for them.

Anonymous said...

And among the many services destroyed for this cut is the mobile library, and Hammersmith Library's reference section.