Liberal Democrat Town, District and County Councillor Tim Prater has dismissed suggestions that stories on the Liberal Democrat website are unfair and misleading.
Shepway Lib Dems have a very active web presence, and commentators occasionally accuse the group of ‘spinning’, or using bad news to generate publicity.
A story on the Lib Dem website titled ‘Councillors join beach litter pick’ contained details of Lib Dem councillors involved but omitted any mention of other non-Lib Dem councillors who took part. A printed Lib Dem flyer does reference ‘other councillors’.
Cllr Prater, who also part owns the company that designs and runs the site, stated ‘I feel [the web article about the litter pick] was accurate and fair. It didn't claim they were doing it alone - it was a brief update on their activity.’
In response to questions about an article headlined ‘3,400 Folkestone and Hythe pensioners to miss out on cold weather payments,’ which was based on national a national average rather than specific figures problems for Shepway, Cllr Prater stated, ‘There are many stories in the press that take a national figure and project what that would mean for a local area. The individual stats for exactly how many people in a specific area are not claiming are not collected (and probably, by definition, couldn't be).
‘There is no reason to suspect Shepway is significantly different from average in terms of take-up of that benefit’.
Defending the site, Cllr Prater stated ‘Our site is based mainly on news from and about the Liberal Democrats. It says what it is clearly on the site. It reports what the Lib Dems are doing’.
‘The Shepway Lib Dems try to keep people up to date with what we are doing at http://www.shepwaylibdems.org.uk/ with a site that is updated massively more frequently than any other Party's site in the area (and indeed, some Parties don't even have one).
‘We do so without significant resources, time and money: we think it’s important that people know what the Lib Dems are doing locally’.
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