In April Penrith Town Council initiated an annual subscription for an online email marketing system costing the town council £7,560.
The Town Councils Finance Committee in June revealed that two separate payments were made to a supplier for an email marketing system in April totalling £7,560.
It was confirmed by the council that council officers had approved the purchase using delegated powers and no approval from the councillors had been sought for the annual subscription that has currently cost the town council £7,560.
The town council email subscription service launched in June enables people to subscribe to receive email updates from Penrith Town Council and choose from four topics to receive emails on including the council’s latest news, council meetings, events & activities (in & around penrith) and climate change & green spaces but has only to date attracted less than 4% of the town’s population to subscribe.
Penrith has a population of 16,984 based on the 2021 census that the town council serves as the local parish council for Penrith.
It has however emerged that since the town councils new email system was implemented at a cost of £7,560 from the council's annual budget paid for by Penrith council taxpayers from the town council precept.
Only 543 email subscribers have signed up across the councils four email subscription topics and a total of only 906 emails have been sent out by the town council to its 543 subscribers since the system was launched in June representing less than two emails for each subscriber.
The information was obtained by Evolve Penrith via a freedom of information request to the town council following questions earlier this year over the value for public money the expenditure by the town council on the email system represented.
Earlier this month the town councils Communities Committee also approved for the town council to pay for a quarterly advert in a publication costing the town council a further £1,520 plus vat despite the publication circulation figures in its 2022 annual report show it has only c7k copies in circulation weekly, according to a town council report the average reader of the publication is 55 and over and 79% of people never or only once a month use the publications website.
A spokesperson for Evolve Penrith that has called for a community governance review to look at replacing the town council with 6 smaller parish councils, it says will be more cost effective and representative of the distinct communities across Penrith has said “The decision to spend public money on marketing efforts, which appear to have limited impact, raises questions about financial accountability, and effective use of public money by Penrith Town Council.”
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