Richard Baum

An article in today’s edition of the Jewish Telegraph has made me very angry. It describes the efforts of defeated Conservative council candidate for Sedgley ward Jonathan Grosskopf’s efforts to clean up graffiti in Prestwich. It has numerous errors, uncorroborated slurs on the Council, Councillors and the Local Area Partnership, and sounds more like the rantings of a deranged party political broadcaster than the serious efforts of credible journalists.

Once again, I am sorry to say that the JT has completely misrepresented the actions of local Councillors and the Prestwich Local Area Partnership, and once again has mislead the community with an article as lazily researched and written as it is devoid of facts.

Regular JT columnist Doreen Wachmann puts in her opinion on the matter, as the JT resorts to its own contributors for quotes rather than unbiased members of the public. Wachmann’s remarks are, as is unfortunately so often the case, only selectively true. Doreen gives an unattributed quote, criticising local Councillors and saying that she was “told that other Councils remove graffiti free of charge.” The truth of course is that a small number do, but most don’t. Bury Council does remove racist or offensive graffiti for free. Now, thanks to the efforts of local Lib Dem Councillors there are free kits to help residents clean other types themselves where able. Council policy on graffiti is set by the politicians in control of the Council – the Conservatives, represented by Mr Grosskopf. So if Ms Wachmann has a problem with Council policy on graffiti, she should not congratulate him as she does in the article, but instead join local Councillors like me in challenging the Conservatives.

The Council’s policy of not cleaning up non-offensive graffiti has been vigorously challenged by local Prestwich Councillors, including me, and we have recently secured the capture of four offenders through collaboration with the police. They will now be removing their own graffiti as part of their punishment.

Ms Wachmann’s comments in the article that the “Prestwich Area Board took months” to come to a decision about graffiti removal kits are simply not true. The kits were ordered and delivered swiftly, and are now available. In fact, Mr Grosskopf used one to clean the graffiti! Mr Grosskopf’s Conservatives wouldn’t pay for them in the Council’s budget, so I myself offered to pay for one on the community’s behalf, as did several other Councillors and businesses.

The article also completely fails to mention the efforts, lauded in the local and national press, of the Prestwich Liberal Democrats and the Prestwich LAP in forcing a Council climb-down over letters threatening action against victims of graffiti for not clearing it up. Its distortion of the facts is almost absolute.

Ms Wachmann also comments on the Prestwich LAP, and again her remarks are erroneous. She is wrong to state that she is invited to meetings of Prestwich Area Board as a Jewish Community Representative. Like all residents, she is welcome to attend, but the Jewish community is represented formally by the JRC via Mr Sidney Baigel. If Ms Wachmann did attend, she would not be representing the community. Incidentally, I attend every meeting, and have never seen her at a single one. If she did attend she might at least realise that the correct name of the meeting was Prestwich Local Area Partnership, not Prestwich Area Board.

I am always happy to discuss my work for Prestwich with Ms Wachmann, Mr Grosskopf, anyone from the Jewish Telegraph or anyone else. My details are publicly available and I respond to every enquiry. And yet the paper made no effort to contact me or any other of my Council colleagues before running a story so full of holes.

For the sake of the community and the credibility of the newspaper, I appeal to the Jewish Telegraph’s staff to at least make some effort to corroborate sources and print articles that are based on fact rather than distorted opinion. To do otherwise is dishonest and, when the facts become clear, makes the newspaper and the community that reads it look ridiculous.

I don’t mind if the JT has a political bias towards the Conservatives or anyone else. Newspapers can have such bias if they want. But the paper owes its readership at least some semblance of the facts. Its writers should work harder, its editors should seek more balance, and the paper should not stoop to journalism so utterly flawed. It doesn’t just damage me and local Lib Dems, but potentially relations between the community and the Council. Such lazy and error-strewn reporting could have long-lasting damaging effects.

Rick