£1/4 million York Council expenditure so far on advertising and publicity during COVID crisis

City of York Council website home page – City of York Council

The York Council spent £285,667 on advertising and publicity during the period from the beginning on February to the end of May.

The figures for June are not yet published on the “Open Data” web site.

Of the total expenditure £189,057 was spent during May.

The largest supplier was Platinum Print of Harrogate who lodged bills totalling £137,090 last month.

Royal Mail charged £6982 to deliver Council newsletters.

The Council didn’t advertise on Minster FM, the local commercial radio station. It spent £1,500 in May with “York Mix”. There were also regular payments to The York Press.

The Councils communications strategy has been criticised for being slow to get started, confusingly complex and unnecessarily repetitive.  Some key information about home deliveries was never circulated.

It is likely that, when the COVID crisis is over, an inquiry into what has been spent, why and with what authority will be launched.