Ledbury Portal Community Forum

Mr Smith, thank you for asking that very pertinent question.
I'd like to start my answer with a brief, but relevant history of the Portal. When we started publishing news back in July 2007 Ledbury and surrounding towns and countryside experienced terrible flooding. The Ledbury Portal was the only local news website in this area that published hour by hour 24/7 news information on road closures, public transport delays, school closures and the weather.
Only after the Ledbury Portal started doing this did our competitor the Ledbury Reporter follow our example. During the floods the Ledbury Reporter website was 100% silent and completely useless to the Ledbury public.
Where did the Ledbury Portal get its news? Most of the updates on roads and schools came from Herefordshire Council, some came from West Mercia police.
The Ledbury Portal has regularly published news from Herefordshire/Worcestershire/Gloucestershire county councils and some parish councils since that time. However, without warning, without reason and without informing us Herefordshire Council suddenly stopped supplying press releases to the Ledbury Portal in the summer of 2009.
We have requested they continue and made a complaint to Herefordshire Council, but it refuses to budge.
In not supplying us with press releases Herefordshire Council is both giving an advantage to our competitors by unreasonably discriminating against us, and are denying a source of local news to Ledbury Portal readers.
Our 'final' complaint against was Herefordshire Council was heard without our attendance (we weren't invited) by the Chief Executive of Herefordshire Council and two Herefordshire Councillors on December 15th 2009. Their decision was made on that day. We at the Ledbury Portal have still not been told what their decision is, although I am 100% convinced that they will decide that they are right. How could it be otherwise?
I strongly urge any Ledbury Portal reader out there who is outraged by Herefordshire Council's decision and their ludicrous complaints procedure to contact Herefordshire Council themselves and complain about the injustice and discrimination they have dealt the Ledbury Portal.

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