The amount of money the Isle of Wight council spends on media has been revealed through an FOIA request.
The table of figures below show how the £92,896.34 that the council spent over the last 12 months was divided up between 12 companies.
Former council employees on the books
A surprising entry is for Roberson Foster Limited. You might recognise the surnames from Claire Robertson, former head of communications at Isle of Wight council and Gavin Foster, former head of the press office.
We’re not sure what media work they’ve carried out for the council since leaving the employ of the council at the end of July but have asked the council and will update once we have the answer.
Isle of Wight County Press
Back in 2010, OnTheWight revealed that the then-Conservative council had spent in excess of £200,000 with the County Press in the year 2008-09, so it’s notable that the figure now sits at £63,000 in the period December 2012 to November 2013.
Isle of Wight Radio group
OnTheWight also ran an article in 2010 on the financial relationship between the council and Isle of Wight Radio.
They’d received a whopping £46,000 in the year 2009-10, but like the recent spend with the CP, in the year December 2012 to November 2013 money spent with Isle of Wight radio dropped to £6,360.
Of course within the same group as Isle of Wight Radio is media spend with the Beacon, which received £8,340 during the period December 2012 to November 2013.
This gives the group a total of income from the Isle of Wight council in that period of £14,700.40
For transparency, OnTheWight can reveal that they didn’t receive any media spend money from Isle of Wight council.
Image: Images of Money under CC BY 2.0
Edit: 13:10 Added date of Roberson Foster leaving IWC
