Essex County Council Press Officer

HC Deb 06 December 1999 vol 340 cc433-4W

Mr. Burns

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, pursuant to the oral statement of the Under-Secretary, the hon. Member for Stretford and Urmston (Ms Hughes) of 24 November 1999,Official Report, column 731, on what evidence the Minister based her statement that an Essex County Council press officer contacted newspapers and other media outlets in Essex, indicating the media outlets contacted and the dates and means of contact. [100844]

Ms Beverley Hughes

The statement was based on information received from the County Council and the Programme Officer. The media outlets contacted were as follows:

• Evening Gazette
• Evening Echo
• East Anglian Daily Times
• Essex Courier
• Epping Gazette
• Herts and Essex Observer
• Yellow Advertiser
• BBC Essex
• Essex FM
• Anglia TV
• BBC TV East
• BBC Newsroom Southeast

All the above mentioned outlets were contacted on 3 November, by fax. Additionally, the Essex Chronicle was dealt with in the manner I alluded to in my oral statement.