Take notice

January 18th, 2010

It may come as a surprise to some but I started out my working life in the newspaper industry.

Delivering the Greenock Telegraph everyday as the local paperboy in Branchton gave me my first income and an early lesson on the rewards of hard work.

Nowadays, I am a columnist and regular contributor as well as an avid reader.

Politicians have a love-hate relationship with the press, making the most of the good publicity and then taking it on the chin when we are held to account.

But I have never been in any doubt of the important part they play in our community.

Local papers are more than just ways of finding out who has been up at court or seeing a grandchild’s school picture, they relay important information.

We don’t need to attend official meetings, read long documents and speak with public figures on a daily basis because they do that for us.

And when decisions are made we don’t like, we count on our local paper to challenge and actively campaign against them, as the Greenock Telegraph has done on schools, crime and health services.

Among the hatches, matches and despatches, there are also public information notices such as temporary road closures and planning applications we need to know about.

Limiting these to the internet, as the Scottish Government is proposing to do, disenfranchises those in the community who don’t have a computer.

The plans to remove the requirement to advertise public notices in the local newspaper is one I am concerned about, not least for drain it will have on their revenue in these tough times.

While I recognise there are real pressures to cut costs, this should not be at the expense of our local papers, which represent real value to our communities.

I certainly prefer to get my local news from the local paper and to deny people that is a blow to democracy.