Concerns Grow Over A Teesside Council’s Political Neutrality in £1m Neighbourhood Clean Up Announcement..
- teessidetoday
- Nov 7
- 4 min read
Hartlepool Borough Council Faces New Bias Row, as its been revealed at least three Labour Members Up for Election in May 2026 Star in Official Photo giving rise to allegations Hartlepool Borough Council breached the Local Government Act...
7th November 2025
New questions have emerged over Hartlepool Borough Council’s £1 million “Pride in Place” clean-up campaign — after it was discovered that at least three of the Labour councillors featured in the official Council photograph are up for re-election in May 2026.
The revelation has reignited accusations that the Hartlepool Borough Councils publicity campaign has crossed the line into party-political promotion, something that explicitly banned under Section 2 of the Local Government Act 1986.
Publicity or political promotion?
The Council’s November 3rd press release announced a £1 million investment in neighbourhood clean-ups — covering litter, graffiti, and fly-tipping — and was accompanied by an official photograph showing several councillors and officers.
However, members of the public quickly pointed out that at least three of the councillors pictured are Labour Councillors due to defend their seats next May. Their inclusion, alongside the Council Leader Pamela Hargreaves, the Wife of Labour MP Jonathan Brash, has only raised further concerns that the press release may serve to boost name recognition and favour the the towns ruling Labour political group ahead of the election.
While the Council has attempted to defended the release as a “celebration of community investment,” critics argue it looks “too political” for an official, taxpayer-funded announcement.
The legal background
Section 2 of the Local Government Act 1986 makes it illegal for councils to publish material that appears “to be designed to affect public support for a political party.”
The Government’s Code of Recommended Practice on Local Authority Publicity further warns that local councils must avoid publishing promotional material that could be viewed as supporting a party, a group of councillors, or individual candidates — especially during election periods.
Although the Council’s press release was issued outside the formal purdah period, its presentation has been criticised as being politically loaded, given that those pictured are directly standing for re-election next year.
History repeating itself
This isn’t the first time Hartlepool Borough Council's faced accusations of breaching the rules around political neutrality.
In 2022, Hartlepool Borough Council was forced to delete a Twitter post from its official account after it was found to have breached purdah — the period before elections when local councils must avoid publishing anything that could be seen to influence the outcome.
At the time, officials admitted that the tweet “did not meet the standards required during a pre-election period” and was swiftly taken down. That incident led to warnings about the importance of remaining politically impartial in all council communications.
Residents are now asking whether the latest publicity campaign shows that lessons have not been learned.
Public confidence at Teesside's most 'troubled' institution is once again at stake...
Residents have taken to social media to question the timing and content of the clean-up announcement, with one calling it “an obvious photo opportunity for the Labour group.”
Others have questioned why the Council’s communications team continues to feature party-affiliated figures in official publicity, particularly when the law demands political neutrality.
One resident told Hartlepool Borough Council Exposed:
“It’s meant to be about the community, not about promoting councillors’ faces six months before an election. The Council should be serving everyone — not campaigning for the people in charge.”
Calls for investigation Grow Stronger..
Given the potential overlap between official Council communications and electoral campaigning, several residents have suggested that the issue should be referred to the Monitoring Officer and possibly the Local Government Ombudsman for review.
The key questions being asked are:
Why were councillors up for re-election included in a staged publicity photo funded by the taxpayer?
Were any checks being made to ensure compliance with Section 2 of the Local Government Act 1986 and the Publicity Code?
And if not, has the Council once again blurred the lines between public information and political promotion?
With local elections in Hartlepool just six months away, the timing of this discovery couldn’t be worse for Hartlepool Borough Council. The local council has already faced criticism for poor transparency and questionable spending decisions as well as publicly being declared an authority with no public confidence back in 2023 — It now faces the added challenge of defending its political neutrality.
The Council’s £1 million “Pride in Place” project should have been a good news story about cleaner streets and civic pride. Instead, it’s becoming a litmus test of political ethics and transparency.
As one local put it:
“It’s not what they said — it’s who’s in the picture that tells the story.”
