CorpComms Magazine

Birmingham City Council has fought back against a claim in the Birmingham Mail that it employs 120 press officers and media specialists. The true number is six, which the council said 'is actually a small team for the largest local authority in the UK and the largest employer in the city'.

It added: 'The other officers are involved in non-media communications activities across every department of the council, which includes: designers, printers, copywriters and advertising and marketing officers looking after 1,000 council services and internal communications for over 55,000 council employees.'

The rebuttal came after Birmingham Mail claimed the council was paying specialist PR consultant Terry Brownbill £800 a day to liaise with journalists in the wake of the death of seven year old Khyra Ishaq, who was starved by her mother.

The council retorted that Brownbill had 'attended court every day during two trials...to liaise with media, which given the low staff numbers, the press office did not have the capacity to do....He has been employed by the City Council to provide strategic support and advice to the council's Children Young People and Families directorate during the period of improvement.'

The council has received a Freedom of Information request to disclose the terms of Brownbill's contract, but is awaiting a decision from the Information Commissioner's Office.

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