Shropshire Council tries to keep its secrecy secret

The excellent Andy Boddington, blogger and Liberal Democrat councillor for Ludlow North, wrote a post the other day, poking fun at the secrecy surrounding Shropshire Council's troubled private company ip&e:

I wanted to tell you that ip&e was created ******* **** ** **** and it is ********. It sees an opportunity in ***** ******** with their ******* ** ******* ******-*** ***** ****. 

But alas, council leader’s Keith Barrow’s cabinet has censored this message by making the business plan exempt.

Today, via the Shropshire Star, comes news that this post has upset the powers that be in Shrewsbury. The story says:

He said: “My blog on the secret world of ip&e clearly upset a few people in the ‘West Wing’ of Shirehall. 

“The council’s monitoring officer told me that concern had been raised that my blog post in relation to ip&e ‘may contain information which is less than accurate in the manner in which confidential information has been portrayed’.” 

But, he said, the complaint was dismissed as no confidential details had been released.

It is hard to resist the conclusion that what the council chiefly lacks is a sense of the ridiculous.