Tower Hamlets has become one of the last boroughs in London to scrap its free weekly council newspaper.
East End Life, which gained notoriety as a mouthpiece for disgraced former mayor Lutfur Rahman, is now expected to become a quarterly publication.
Campaigners welcomed the decision to abolish the paper in its current form, which cost the taxpayer more than £1.5 million a year. But they criticised new Labour mayor John Biggs, who campaigned on a platform to get rid of the weekly freesheet last May, for failing to do so until he had come under pressure from Government commissioners.
The paper, which is delivered to 90,000 homes and went fortnightly last month, will now adhere to local authority guidelines and go quarterly from May. East End Life became one of the most visible symbols of the profligacy of the former mayor, who was forced to stand down last year after he was found guilty of wrongdoing by an election court. Critics claimed he used the paper as a personal publicity tool.
Tower Hamlets said it had agreed to close East End Life by the end of March — and would stick to its promise.
Mr Biggs said the delay was partly due to the development of a communications strategy. He added: “The reasons for it taking such a while are manifold, they included assurances from senior officers no longer responsible for this that there was no urgency when I had lots of other things to worry about. We can’t simply close it down and have nothing, we still have to convey quite important information to residents.”
Tory councillor Chris Chapman said: “All we get is glossy photos and articles promoting the mayor, his administration and the local Labour MPs. It is nothing short of political advertising and under the former mayor Lutfur Rahman it was a cult of personality.”
Greenwich is now thought to be the only borough in the capital still publishing a weekly paper.
