A CURIOUS trip from Wallasey town hall to Hackney took place in March with Wirral Council's top brass meeting their counterparts in the London borough.

Labour-run Hackney council is well-known in certain circles for defying the Government over its publication of a controversial fortnightly newspaper called Hackney Today.

Wirral Council is also planning to publish its own newspaper - a monthly edition which coincidentally is to be called Wirral Today - in apparent defiance of the Government's "publicity code" which limits the frequency of such papers to four per year.

But in a reply to a Freedom of Information request Wirral has said the trip had nothing whatever to do with town hall newspapers.

It says there is "no recorded information to suggest that any council officer or member was aware the Hackney Today newspaper existed prior to that visit."

The reply reveals the delegation was made up councillors Phil Davies, (leader) George Davies and Ann McLachlan (deputy leader and cabinet member for leisure and culture respectively), accompanied by Eric Robinson, chief executive, Lucy Barrow, head of strategy, Kevin MacCallum, senior manager communications & marketing and Martin Liptrot, executive policy support officer.

The FoI response continues: "The purpose of that visit was not to discuss the Hackney Today newspaper.

"The visit was arranged on the recommendation of the chief executive of Ipsos Mori who highlighted the borough as an example of excellent practice in driving major improvements in resident satisfaction."

Opposition members in Wirral are sceptical.

Councillor Ian Lewis, who made the FoI request, said: “I’m afraid the statement that somehow this visit by senior Labour councillors and council managers to Hackney had nothing at all to do with the production of this council newspaper is stretching credibility.

"Otherwise are we seriously to believe that it was an amazing coincidence that of all the councils, in all the country that Labour could have visited, it just happened to be the one that is already producing an expensive, controversial newspaper?"

Whatever the purpose of the visit, the row over Wirral's newspaper plans continues with a special meeting of all 66 members of the council being called for October.

The extraordinary meeting will decide whether a scrutiny committee was "hoodwinked" by the ruling Labour group over a letter from a minister warning them not to break publicity rules.

Local Government minister Marcus Jones had sent the letter to council leader Phil Davies demanding reassurances from the authority that it will not press ahead with the proposed monthly newspaper.

The letter was referred to at the scrutiny committee - but its contents were not revealed.

Whether that document should have been shown to opposition councillors will be one of the main points of argument when the extraordinary meeting convenes on October 17.

A council spokesman said: “Cabinet was already well aware of the guidance contained in the publicity code but agreed that, such was the need for the council to communicate more effectively with residents, a departure from the code in relation to the frequency of this publication was justified.

“The DCLG letter was referred to at the [scrutiny] meeting and the council has since written back to inform them of our position and invite further discussion."

The council intends to publish its 28-to-36-page newspaper twelve times a year delivering it free through 150,000 letterboxes with 15,000 copies available for collection at libraries and other public buildings.

The publication will be supported by its own website and social media.