Part 1...
The intro to the very first print edition of the Salford Star back in 2006 promised a magazine that was different; that was independent from any political pressure; that was written and produced by Salford people for Salford people..."It just aims to give the community a voice, to make public bodies a bit more accountable and to inform, campaign and entertain..."
We had got together enough money to produce this first pilot issue from Awards for All, UnLtd and the East Salford Community Committee, all keen to see the community having a voice.
After the first issue had appeared and the pages were full of real voices, from real people, telling how Salford Council and the Government had sold them down the river, things changed.
`We are not amused' might be the reaction of those in authority in the city. A week after the mag had hit the streets, Salford Council's Cabinet was discussing the Star "as a matter of urgency", particularly around its funding. How did we know this? Because the Lead Member's briefings were published on Salford Council's website.
In the next issue of the Star, we published those publicly available minutes...and then all minutes for the Lead Member's briefing vanished and, 15 years later, have never appeared since.
Indeed, you can chart the information published on Salford Council's website from pre-Salford Star days (everything), to post-Salford Star (virtually nothing). Basically, when the Council thought no-one was looking, all was available. When someone did start looking everything disappeared. That's local council transparency for you...
...And this was in the halcyon days before the Mayor system set in, when, on the outside at least, everything was played by the rules; when the Salford Council press officer at the time said "We don't do 'no comment'", and when Council leader John Merry's door was always open; we even took him on tour around Salford to get his views on the regeneration.
Obviously, we rarely got the answers we wanted but at least there was a dialogue. By print issue 5 in 2007, the Council was, however, playing funny buggers over Freedom of Information requests, either quoting obscure sections of the Act or finding new Environmental Information Regulations to block them...decision notices began disappearing from the Council's website and questions to the Council went unanswered.
Community Committees in Salford at the time had £3.06 devolved money per person in their area to spend on whatever they liked. So we re-applied to the Community Committees but this time the application was ripped up, despite the Star winning awards and accolades for its investigative journalism.
We subsequently found out that, behind closed doors, Salford Council had actually been re-writing its constitution, just for publications, to stop us getting funding. Members of the Community Committees budget groups were furious – "tinkering with democracy" said one; "discrimination" said another...
The grounds were that the Star had dared to use the word 'dickheads' and was not "balanced". We wrote an open letter back to the Council...
"In relation to the Star not taking a 'balanced approach' we make no apology that the magazine has a bias towards the community – to give people a voice who wouldn't normally have one, and to hold public bodies up to account...Hello, it's a community magazine...not a 'Let's all suck up to the Council because we've got big salaries resting on it' magazine..."
We explained that we did try to get quotes from whoever we were writing about, unlike Council and Council related publications..."How many words has the community had to put 'different points of view' in council sponsored/ funded mags like LIFE, New Deal, Making it Better and the very lavish Central Salford magazine? Exactly. That's why the Salford Star was born..."
Just over a year since the Salford Star first hit the streets, and the gloves were off. Meanwhile, public sector organisations and any body that had dealings with the Council pulled advertisements from the mag, forcing it to go online only. We suspected, and were told anecdotally, that the Council was putting pressure on people to keep away from the Star.
Yet, at the time, Salford Council was spending over £3million on publicity for itself, with a swollen marketing department employing 43 staff, while stuffing money into Salford City Radio (£175,000) and the so-called 'People's Voice' media centre (£484,000) which didn't question the Council.
In contrast, the Salford Star had some collection tins in shops around the city and sold some t-shirts and mugs. While the collection tins were always overflowing it just wasn't enough to sustain the print editions and, in 2009, the Star went online for what we thought would be a short while, as we attempted to raise some more funds.
Just for the hell of it, we thought we'd re-apply to the Community Committees in 2010 – only this time members of the budget group were told they would be breaking the law if they supported us, and could be jailed! We were told this by a rabbi on the Committee, and they don't tend to lie...
Apparently the Star couldn't be financed by the community because "it tends to criticise authority, in particular singling out Salford Council and individual councillors". Plus, the Star was apparently "overtly political in nature", even though we had never told anyone how to vote, nor endorsed any political party.
Meanwhile, Salford Council itself was producing its own magazine, Life In Salford, at a cost to taxpayers of almost £28,000 an issue, and one councillor resigned from its board saying it was "a propaganda vehicle for the Cabinet...an often misleading... relentlessly and unjustifiably upbeat publication"...
Salford Youth Council actually passed an emergency motion condemning the decision not to fund the Star, and vowing to boycott the Council's Life In Salford magazine on the grounds that it was "unfairly biased" and produced at an "obscenely high cost".
The war between council publications and community publications became a hot issue nationally and the Salford Star gave evidence to the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee on the unfair competition.
The Salford Star was now financially forced to become online only at a time in 2009 when most people in Salford didn't have the internet. We thought Salford City Council was dreadful in its transparency and media dealings...but this was nothing compared with what was to come...
In Part 2 we have the Salford Mayoral system, Hazel Blears and the Government all trying to stop, block or discredit the Salford Star...click here
Previous articles on the Salford Star Closure...
Salford Star To Close After 15 Years – click here
The Star Is Born – click here
Alice's Story: Injustice From South Africa to Salford – click here
Salford Stars – Part 1 – click here
Salford Stars Part 2 – click here
Real Salford Heritage - Inside The Cliff Man United Training Ground - click here
The Battle of Barton Moss – click here
Nigel Pivaro Looks Back Over 15 Years of the Star – click here
Planning Scandals and the Affordable Housing Crisis - click here
Campaigns, demos and protests – click here
Guy Griffiths on the Pathfinder Demolitions - click here
What's Left and What's Worth Saving in Salford - click here
Eight Happenings That Encapsulate Salford: Part 1 – click here
Eight Happenings That Encapsulate Salford: Part 2 – click here
Guy Griffiths on the Pathfinder Demolitions – Part 2 The Human Cost - click here
The Salford Star Closes After 15 Years of Attitude and Love xxx - click here
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