THE Bolton Scene — Bolton Council’s free newspaper — has been slammed as a “costly ego trip” as figures show the publication cost more than £250,000 over four years.

Since 2011 more than £253,000 has been spent on the paper, which is delivered to nearly every home in the borough.

Of that about £173,000 was paid for from internal income — with money raised from various departments looking to promote their services — while the rest was paid through external advertising.

Smithills Lib Dem councillor Andrew Martin believes too much is spent on the publication but council bosses have defended the Scene, saying that because the paper has no dedicated budget, funding for it cannot be allocated elsewhere.

Cllr Martin said: “Our view is that the newspaper is an extended and expensive ego trip for the council.

“Very few people take the time to read it and when the roads are in a terrible state and services are being cut, it shouldn’t be a priority for the council.

“It’s a waste of money, and just shows Labour is out of touch with what people really want in Bolton.”

The number of editions of council newspapers allowed to be published each year has been slashed by local government minister Eric Pickles from 12 to four.

Defending the spending, Bolton Council leader Cllr Cliff Morris said the council had a duty to tell Bolton residents what the authority was doing.

He said: “Although it has been cut to four a year by Mr Pickles, we are still spending on this. It is important.

“We have a duty to communicate to the people of Bolton and we do that through the Scene — it probably covers 90 per cent of the borough.

"We use the Scene to encourage more customers to use the council website, because it is generally the cheapest way to do business, and for families to apply for school places as it is a more efficient process.”

A council spokesman said: “Bolton Council has produced Bolton Scene for many years as part of our commitment to inform the public about the work of their council, as we are required to do under local government legislation.

“We use it to communicate the many things that the council does from information about recycling and attracting residents to become foster carers and adopters to promoting events and councillors’ surgeries. It is an efficient way of reaching as many people as possible with a large range of information.

“A single copy is just 13p to produce.

“The distribution is 121,000 and residents tell us that Bolton Scene is very popular as a source of news.”