Reducing the cost of public notice advertising
The statutory requirement to advertise public notices is an area of significant spend for councils in Hampshire. The majority of adverts were placed in "paid for" newspapers owned by major media organisations. Prices for the placement of adverts have generally been perceived as high as councils found it difficult to manage these costs. It was agreed that public notice advertising would be reviewed to evaluate if there were any advantages in collaborating. A survey of public views suggested that residents were most likely to find out about planning notices from letters and direct contact from neighbours.
Hampshire County Council led a tender for a collaborative framework and awarded a contract to Hampshire Media on 1st September 2012. The new free paper circulates across Hampshire and is also available online. Libraries and mobile libraries distribute the paper to rural areas and people without easy access to a distribution point can sign up to receive a copy by post.
The framework included provision for other councils to join and nine councils are now using it. The average cost saving achieved is around 50% per advert. Across all the councils this adds up to a significant six-figure sum. Hampshire Media is a locally based SME, which has increased its staffing in response to winning the tender. Additional jobs have also been created in their supply chain in distribution and printing.
Part of the savings on press notices have been invested. The Council has created a web based portal to hold all public notice adverts. This acts as a central point for all council information and members of the public can sign up for email alerts on areas of interest. There is the potential for other councils to use the portal and Hampshire hope that further cost savings will be achieved when the rules on public notice advertising are changed to make it fully online.
Links:
Portal for public notices www.hants.gov.uk/publicnotices
Hampshire Media http://www.hantsdirect.com/
Contact: