What a clever little council!

FENLAND District Council could be smarter in the way it presents itself through the press, according to the chairman of the council's overview and scrutiny panel.

Councillor Simon King told council leader Geoff Harper and chief executive Tim Pilsbury at last week's panel meeting that reaction from the public is not fully thought about.

"We still do things to people rather than with them," he said.

"An example of this is the Nene Waterfront. Initially, they were very positive but I feel we are losing the publicity battle there.

"Things about contaminated land issues and the quality of the buildings are starting to overtake."

But Cllr Harper said the panel had to understand that, at this stage of the waterfront project, the council was in the middle of "highly sensitive" negotiations, although Mr Pilsbury added the council needed to do much promotional activity.

Cllr Harper also said: "In the last 12 months, we have also instituted the Fenland Eye page weekly (in this newspaper) and we cannot control what the newspaper decides to print.

"All we can do is emphasise the things we are doing in an area of good news that we hope the public will notice.

"What we can't control is what people say to the press. If they are negative, we have no control over it."

Cllr King said: "I think we would all like to see greater awareness of those issues that are going to be contentious, and greater efforts to target those things they could have been handled in a better way.

"I'm not suggesting somebody has not done their job properly but I hope we can see a better presentation.