Public sector news in brief

PR Week UK, Friday, 10 December 2004, 12:00am,

CHILTERN: Chiltern District Council has produced a DVD to promote its online services. The 30-minute film shows a fictional family moving into the area and using e-services to learn about their community and council. All local authorities must have their essential services online by 2005 in line with the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister’s e-government plan.

BRIDGEND: Bridgend County Council has launched a poster campaign that urges women to use licensed taxis as the festive party season gets under way. The posters encourage women to look for the borough’s official ‘B’ logo on the side of taxis and to ask to see their driver’s badge. It also reminds women that unlicensed drivers have not been vetted by the police.

VISITSCOTLAND: VisitScotland has launched magazine called Ambitions to a database of 18,000 industry readers. The magazine reports on the issues affecting the Scottish tourism industry and the sector’s attempts to boost business, said a VisitScotland spokesman. The pilot edition focuses on how to achieve consistent quality across the sector.

MERSEYSIDE: The Mersey Partnership is launching a campaign to promote a series of events to be held around Christmas and New Year’s Day. As well as theatre, dance, puppetry and music events, there will be a specially made ice-rink in St Helens town centre and national museums will be free. The Mersey Partnership is made up of six local authorities, government agencies, universities and local businesses.

KENT: Medway Council has drafted in Stephen Hannington for the newly created role of media officer. He will report to principal media officer Darren Bindloss and joins a press team of four; he will manage media relations during his two-year contract. For the past seven years, Hannington has been working as a freelance journalist. Prior to that he was a media officer at Mercury Communications.

CIB LONDON: Westminster City Council head of comms Alex Aiken this week spoke at the Communications In Business’s London region group seminar on winning public-sector business. COI publications director Andrew Prince and Redhouse Lane director Richard Lomax also spoke at the event at the British Council. The event examined what the public sector wants from external agencies and how it can get the best out of private comms specialists.