Week of confusion and counterclaims over council's ban

IT'S been a week since the Reform party of Nottinghamshire County Council imposed its unprecedented ban on us.

- By JOSEPH CONNOLLY

Angry about an article which Reform claimed was “biased” and the “consistent misrepresenting of the party”, leader Mick Barton ordered the ban.

In an update at yesterday's full county council meeting, Councillor Barton said that his councillors were now not banned from speaking us, arguing that this element of the ban was never true, even though it was confirmed on multiple occasions by the county council's press office to multiple outlets.

It emerged that Councillor Barton will still not be speaking to the Post and its website for now and the ban on the council sending press releases and inviting the Post's journalists to events remains in place, it's since been confirmed.

While some supported the action, many members of the public rebuked the decision due to how it will affect local political news, and the ability of the party to be scrutinised on matters of public interest.

But it isn't just the public that is affected - as East Midlands mayor Claire Ward explained when she told the Local Democracy Reporting Service how she believes the ban was “not the way forward for democracy”.