Council leader in Tweets row

Cheshire East's council leader Michael Jones was dealing with extensive media coverage as it emerged that council staff were used to write personal tweets attacking his political opponents.

Critics of Cllr Jones have called for him to step down over the allegations which emerged from a Freedom of Information request.

An FOI request by BBC Radio Stoke claims to have uncovered 50 pages of emails of "suggested" draft tweets written by the council's media relations team for Cllr Jones' personal twitter account.

Some are said to be political tweets, which breach the Local Authority Code of Practice on Publicity of not using council staff paid for by the public for political statements.

The story was covered extensively last night on BBC1's North West tonight with Cllr Jones involved in a combative interview broadcast in the 6.30 and 10.30pm news.

Over Christmas, Cllr Jones was involved in an unfortunate and very personal spat with Cllr Brian Silvester – reported on AudlemOnline on Boxing Day – which inevitably meant the latter was exacting some revenge last night saying he has reported the issue to Government ministers.

Despite Cllr Jones' denials on air of wrongdoing, Cheshire East subsequently issued a statement saying: "Although the context of this was to protect the council, this activity is not permitted and staff have been advised accordingly. The Chief Executive has taken action to bring this practice to an end."

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