In the world of Local Government, the local media and increasingly local social media platforms play an incredibly important role. Every Councillor in the country religiously reads the local newspaper (or at the very least the newspaper website) and they are almost all on social media platforms monitoring community groups, residents organisations, and councils. Increasingly local Councillors also have their own internet presence and during lockdown, we have seen some very creative methods of Councillors engaging with residents and vice versa.

A recent study found that 94% of residents in the UK believe everything that is published by their local newspaper and that figure only falls to 87% for local social media groups. The local media whether it is printed or online is a very powerful tool that can make or break an application. We have unfortunately seen the power of particularly social media when used against planning applications as hundreds or even thousands of residents can be reached through local media or social media to turn them against planning applications.

At the CCP we have a press team that proactively engages with all media platforms to help dispel myths and untruths about planning applications and provide the platforms with facts and helpful images.

This team consists of a very experienced journalist who worked in local newspapers and latterly on national newsletters.

• We are able to produce succinct press releases, media statements and longer articles.
• We provide tailored material for the media that provide a narrative consisting of the facts, highlighting the benefits and stopping myths and untruths.
• We also have team members who specialise in social media and they are experts in how to effectively engage with the various social media platforms.
• We finally have a team that can be commissioned to observe all media platforms 24/7 to alert the project team of any coverage in real-time.
• We do also have an in-house lawyer who can give us an immediate opinion on any of our material or on any material that does appear in the press. This is a further safeguard we have to ensure that everything we publish complies with the law and any material posted that might be defamatory or wilfully misleading is dealt with in a robust manner.

Watch our video on media management for more information.