The press office situation at County Hall has bothered me for a while.

Last year Westco, the commercial arm of Westminster City Council, teamed-up with Leicestershire County Council to find a candidate to head-up the slimmed-down communications and press team at county hall.

The high-profile job vacancy, together with a salary of £65,000, attracted more than 40 applications, yet no-one was ever interviewed.

At the end of October, Westco were signed-up for another six month £60,000 stint, to continue to provide an interim communications chief and continue the search for that elusive candidate.

The job was never re-advertised though, and instead the post was quietly axed altogether. Opposition councillors say the council has wasted £100,000 on the whole process at a time when the authority is making cuts to services.

Westco’s original £7,500 a month interim boss, Fergus Sheppard, was replaced by Paul Masterman late last year.

But Fergus continued to work for the county council, one day each week, until fairly recently. He was no longer based at County Hall, however, and was instead down in London.

There were whispers around County Hall that while the situation may have been entirely innocent, it looked bad. Leader David Parsons was, at the time, one of the favourites to become Local Government Association chair. A personal PR man for the leader ahead of the election? All on the rates? Surely not.

Then in December last year Private Eye came out and alleged just that. The council denied it.

In March this year it emerged that Nottingham City Council leader Jon Collins used a taxpayer-funded consultant for party political election advice. The story was uncovered as a result of a Freedom of Information request from the Nottingham Post.

I spoke to the reporter at the Post who uncovered the story. He’d simply requested email correspondence between the council leader and the consultant and the council had delivered. He supplied me with the wording of the FOI request for my own use.

I lodged the same request to the county council in June this year, asking for correspondence between Parsons and Sheppard. A recent response from Graeme Wardle, in member support, said:

“Your request for information has now been considered. However, unfortunately we do not hold the information.
I apologise that your request cannot be met but if you have any further information needs in the future then please contact me quoting the FOI Request Number 2740.”

Effectively I was being told there wasn’t any communication between the council leader and one of the authority’s most senior PR chiefs, or that there were no records at all and all emails had been deleted.

In the past, the usually talkative council chief David Parsons has declined to discuss the communications team issue in any depth with me, and a recent request to the council’s press office on the issue was returned half-answered.

Last week I lodged a new Freedom of Information request, asking for all correspondence relating to 2740. It should shed more light on how my original request was dealt with internally.

In the words of Alistair Campbell, I’ll keep banging on about this one.

Private Eye claimed this week that Fergus Sheppard is acting as Leicestershire County Council leader David Parsons’ personal PR man one day a week, paid for by taxpayers.

Yesterday the press office denied that this was the case, saying he had a more general role overseeing the council’s reputation.

I followed this up with a simple query today, to clarify the situation. My message read:

Private Eye stated that Fergus was working as David Parsons’ personal PR man. At a time of cuts that’s a statement likely to damage the reputation of David Parsons and the council itself.  As one of the communications department’s roles is to promote the authority as a “well-respected authority” on the national stage, one would expect the council to have requested a full correction of this alleged error.  Could you confirm this is the case? Could you also confirm when we can expect to see the apology and correction in print?

A simple question. If the council has been lied about, surely it will be demanding a correction and apology. After all, we’ve got two top communications “gurus” in charge whose job it is to defend the council’s reputation on the national stage. This would be a no-brainer for most PR chiefs.

Sadly, I’ve just received a response which began: “Nothing to add on Private Eye, David. You have our answers to all your questions on the facts.”

Why not? If the council isn’t demanding an apology then one must ask why it is hesitant to press the issue. As they’re unwilling to respond fully, feel free to draw your own conclusions.

What breathtaking arrogance from a public body.

The high-profile job vacancy, together with a salary of £65,000, attracted more than 40 applications. Curiously, no-one was interviewed.

Instead, at the end of October, Westco were signed-up for another six month stint. As part of the new £60,000 deal they continue to provide an interim communications chief and continue the search for that elusive candidate.

The payments are on top of the £20,000 they were paid for the initial communications review.

The £7,500-a-month interim man between May and October, Fergus Sheppard, has now moved on. New guy Paul Masterman (left) has now been in place for several weeks. Expect to read more about Sheppard’s departure in coming weeks.

Anyway, Masterman’s got an impressive CV. Councils, consultancy firms and PR companies abound. It’s one of the most detailed LinkedIn profiles I’ve seen.

But one thing is missing from his impressive career history: the reason he left Shropshire County Council after more than three years in April 2007.

According to the BBC, he was suspended during a disciplinary investigation after it was discovered that he’d attempted to influence a BBC online poll regarding a council merger. He later left the post.

The county council is currently using the internet to consult the public on where the axe should fall on its budgets. Hopefully he’ll resist the urge to meddle this time.

He seems like a pretty straight guy and he’s also web savvy, so get hold onto your hats for council 2.0.

He’s certainly got the credentials. He was ITN’s first new media correspondent in 2000. That’s way back when the most interesting thing on the internet was Hamster Dance.

Now – via BBC London, The Scotsman and Harrow Council – he’s arrived in Leicestershire.

I just hope the council’s media makeover is better than his effort at cultivating a Twitter presence.

It has two updates, one asks whether Stephen Fry cut out white wine to lose weight, and the other assures members of the public that Harrow Council hasn’t banned ice cream vans. That was almost a year ago.

C’mon. Use it or lose it, Fergus!