cost of council paper

Dear Ms Wadsworth

Thank you for your email dated 21 May 2009, in which you have requested
information in respect of, amongst other things, a breakdown of the costs
in producing the publication Your Croydon.

We are considering your request under the terms of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000, and hope to respond within the statutory 20 working
days.

In some circumstances a fee may be payable and if that is the case, either
myself or a colleague will let you know the likely charges before
proceeding.

If you have any queries about this email, please contact me. Please
remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.

Yours sincerely

Chris Tanriverdi

Paralegal

Democratic & Legal Services

Chief Executives's Department

5th Floor South Side, Taberner House

Park Lane, Croydon CR9 3JS

Tel : 020 8726 6000 Ext: 63833

Fax: 020 8407 1322

Faxination:020 8633 9664

Email: [1][email address]

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I am away from the office returning on Monday 29 June. I will respond to
your email on my return. if the matter is urgent in relation to Data
Protection or Freedom of Information please contact my colleague James
Derby on Ext 61359

For all other matters please contact Michelle Hughes on Ext 61964.

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Dear Ms Wadsworth

Thank you for your email dated 21 May 2009, in which you have requested
amongst other things, a breakdown of the costs in producing the
publication Your Croydon. We have considered your request under the terms
of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), and apologise for the delay
in replying.

Your Croydon was first produced in October 2006. It became a monthly
publication in 2008/09 and appeared in tabloid format for the first time
in February 2009.

I can advise that to answer fully your request Council officers would have
to sift through copious amounts of data and spend a substantial amount of
time putting this in the form that you require. The cumulative time it
would take for Council officers to provide the information you have
requested would exceed the "appropriate limit".

The appropriate limit has been specified in the Freedom of Information
(Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004 and for local authorities it
is set at £450. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending
2½ working days in locating, retrieving and extracting the information
from where it is stored. Under Section 12 of the FOIA the Council is not
obliged to comply with your request and we will not be providing
information for the period requested.

However, in order to comply with the spirit of the legislation and to
provide you with meaningful figures this response includes data for the
most recent issue for which full costs have been processed. This is the
May issue, delivered at the end of April.

150,000 copies of a 28pp newspaper were printed and distributed. This
compares to 91,707 for the Croydon Guardian, 87,825 for the Croydon Post
and 14,517 for the Croydon Advertiser series (Source: Jicreg data for the
Croydon local government area).

Total production cost was £21,540 resulting in a unit cost of just 0.14p
- or £1.68 per household the year out of a typical band D council tax
payment of £1,138.

The highest component of the monthly expense is print and production -
£13,887. Freelance photography amounted to £182.56 and external proof
reading was £60.

Distribution is now undertaken by a specialist contractor rather than a
free newspaper. This ensures greater penetration. Cost of distributing
the May issue amounted to £7,410.

Costs are offset by acceptance of advertising. Indicative rates are
published in the paper and are therefore already in the public domain and
do not require an FoI for disclosure (Section 21 FOIA). Advertising
income for the May issue was £284.

These figures are not untypical for producing a 28 pp newspaper. The
annual cost therefore would be in the region of £258,480.

Although for presentational purposes, the paper refers to an `editorial
team', no council staff are employed exclusively on producing the
publication. Copy is produced largely, but not exclusively, by staff
within the strategy and communications division of the chief executive's
department. Invariably material intended for the council publication will
also have been produced for web purposes, internal communications or even
stand alone publicity material. Likewise there is no IT that is
exclusively used for publication production purposes. All communications
staff have access to a computer.

Your Croydon is printed on totally chlorine free stock produced from a
sustainable source. Households are encouraged to recycle the paper when
finished - just like any other newspaper. It would not be cost-effective
to apportion recycling costs to the council paper. However, its size
would suggest it would consume considerably less recycling resource than
either of the free newspapers circulating within the borough.

Local authorities are required to communicate with their local residents
and the 1986 Local Government Act obliges councils to do so in the most
cost-effective manner. Councils also have to be mindful of addressing
performance indicators relating to satisfaction in terms of imparting
information.

Croydon Council first introduced a publication for residents in 1983.
Successive councils of differing political persuasions have subsequently
evaluated costs and considered the expense to be a worthwhile contribution
to keeping residents informed of the services and amenities which are
funded through council tax. All council publications have to comply with
local authority publicity legislation.

If you are unhappy with the way the department has handled your request
under the Freedom of Information Act, you may ask for an internal review.
You can do this by outlining the details of your complaint and either

o e-mailing us at [Croydon Borough Council request email]
o faxing us on 0208 760 5679
o writing to FOI Complaints, London Borough of Croydon, Democratic and
Legal Services, Croydon, CR9 3JS

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have
the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a
decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

o Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane,
Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF

Yours sincerely

James Derby

Corporate Solicitor

Legal & Democratic Services

London Borough of Croydon

Taberner House

Park Lane

CR9 3JS

Tel: 020 8760 5768 Ext. 61359

Fax: 020 8760 5679

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