Leicester Mercury political correspondent
Posts tagged Mark Bentley
Whodunnit: Twitter edition
Jun 27th
On Saturday night, someone from Leicester City Council alleged that I’d “selectively quoted” a source in Saturday’s front page story.
However Amanda Crowden, from charity Support our Soldiers, is quoted in today’s paper, by a different reporter, saying pretty much the same thing.
As I wrote yesterday, I found it bizarre that the council tried to discredit the story despite making a full climbdown earlier in the day.
The update was quickly removed.
This morning I asked the council who uploaded the Tweet in question.
So who was it?
Step forward Monopoly-mad press office supremo Mark Bentley (pictured). Tut tut.
Straight to jail, do not pass Go.
How long does it take Mark Bentley to get a letter posted?
Dec 10th
More than a week, according to Tory opposition leader Ross Grant.
He told Wednesday night’s finance committee that people had been left in the dark over the elected mayor consultation in some parts of the city.
For example he said turned up at one library to find that the consultation poster was still lying in an envelope, un-opened, on Monday. That was the final day of the consultation.
But more curious was the postmark. November 30 – nine days after the shotgun council meeting which began the attempt to ram through the elected mayor idea.
He told the committee: “We were all quickly hauled into the council chamber to start this process, yet the head of communications couldn’t even get the consultation documents to a library for nine days after that.”
A first hand experience for a city councillor of press office delays?
A limp theory
May 19th
I walked past city council press chief Mark Bentley twice last week, and he didn’t look too happy.
I used Twitter to speculate as to what could have caused his disgruntlement, and a few direct messages were pinged my way with theories.
But word now reaches me that he has a tendon problem in his left foot. Suddenly the pained expression (and the limp) all makes sense.
Ex-cabinet corner…
Mar 26th
The grocer
Mar 22nd
Whenever there’s a regime change at a local authority, you expect to see a few people jump ship.
The old routine is shaken-up, and the change is often the motivation some people need to move on and find a new job or career.
But it still came as a surprise to find this sign-off from an online grocer when I did my shopping at the weekend.
Thank you for shopping with Ocado.
On behalf of Ocado,
Mark Bentley
Head of Service Delivery Division
It turns out it’s not really Leicester City Council’s communications chief. He hasn’t gone anywhere.
Although his LinkedIn web profile does say he’s interested in career opportunities, consulting offers, new ventures, job inquiries and business deals…
