An investigation by the Bedford Independent has found that Bedford Borough Council has spent £377,000 publishing public notices in local publications since 2022, despite not routinely holding circulation figures for the titles where those notices appear.
The figures, released under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, show £369,000 of that total was spent with just one publication, the Bedford Times & Citizen, whose latest publicly available circulation (2023) was just under 22,000 copies per week on average.
The Bedford Independent sought clarification from its publisher, Iconic Media Group, on the latest independently verified circulation figure for the title, but received no support to confirm these figures.
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By comparison, the Bedford Independent, a regulated online newspaper, averages 130,000 unique readers per month (30,232apx per week). The population of Bedford Borough at the last census in 2021 was just over 185,000.
The comparison is not made to suggest public notices should be removed from print altogether. Campaigners, including Progress Publishing, which publishes this paper, say printed notices still have a role, particularly for residents who are digitally excluded.
Instead, they argue the figures show why councils should be allowed to choose from a wider range of regulated local publishers, including online newspapers, based on reach, cost, accountability and value for money.
Bedford Borough Council is legally required to publish many statutory notices in printed newspapers and is not accused of acting unlawfully.
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The issue comes as the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has confirmed it will consult on statutory notices as part of Amplify: The Local Media Action Plan, published in March 2026.
With local councillors, Bedford and Kempston’s MP, public-interest journalism campaigners, and the Government agreeing that the current system is not keeping pace with how people consume local news.
£377,000 bill
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The FOI response showed that on public notices, Bedford Borough Council spent:
- £77,000 in 2022/23
- £102,000 in 2023/24
- £94,000 in 2024/25
- £104,000 in 2025/26
Of the £377,000 total, £369,000 went to the Bedford Times & Citizen newspaper, which is regulated by IPSO and published by Iconic Media Group, one of the largest regional publishers in the UK and Ireland.
They took control of the title when its parent company, Media Concierge, acquired its former owner, National World, for £65 million in a deal finalised in May 2025.
The Bedford Independent, a newspaper regulated by Impress, received £6,000 during the same period, while a further £2,000 went to an unregulated publication with no visible standards code.
The figures only relate to Bedford Borough Council spending. They do not include the cost to local businesses, venues, applicants or residents who may also be required to pay for statutory notices, including licensing or planning-related notices.
Those costs are not known from the FOI response, but they are affected by the same system, which continues to require that many notices be placed in printed newspapers.
When asked whether Bedford Borough Council collected, monitored or knew the circulation of the newspapers in which it placed public notices so it could monitor value, the council’s FOI officer replied, “Information not held”.
Legal duty
Public notices, also known as statutory notices, are formal announcements that councils, businesses and other organisations are required by law to publish.
They can include notices relating to planning applications, traffic orders, licensing, consultations, public rights of way and other matters that may affect residents, services, amenities or property.
Many of those notices still have to be published in a printed newspaper, even though the majority of people now access local news online. Ofcom’s‘News Consumption in the UK: 2025’ report showed that online news sources now beat any other medium.
In their research, Ofcom found that 70% of adults access news from any online source, while TV (68%) and print (34%) continue to decline.
Cllr Marc Frost (Conservative, Wixams & Wilstead), portfolio holder for finance at Bedford Borough Council, said the starting point was the law.
“The Council is required to publish a range of statutory notices in printed newspapers. We comply with that legal duty. This is not discretionary spend in the usual sense,” he said.
“That said, the cost is significant. £377,000 since 2022 is a material sum, particularly in the current financial climate, where every pound of public money must be justified.
“So the right question is not whether the Council is following the law, it is whether the system itself still delivers value.”
Limited choice
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Cllr Frost said the current framework limits the council’s ability to secure genuine value for money because it prescribes print publication, rather than focusing on effective communication.
“The legislation prescribes the medium, print, rather than the outcome, effective communication,” he said.
“That restricts genuine market competition and limits the Council’s ability to drive down cost in the way you would expect in any other area of spend.”
In practical terms, that means Bedford Borough Council is not buying public notice space in a fully open local media market.
For many notices, the legal requirement to use print limits the council’s options before cost, reach or audience data can be properly considered.
Cllr Frost said the council not routinely holding or retaining verified circulation figures for each notice placed is also a problem.
“Historically, the legal requirement to publish in a recognised printed newspaper has been treated as sufficient assurance of reach,” he said.
“That reflects how the system has operated nationally for years, not a Bedford-specific approach. However, expectations have moved on, and so must we.”
The council challenges invoices, reviews the frequency and format of notices, and avoids duplication where possible, Cllr Frost said.
But he added, “Without robust data on reach and engagement, any assessment of value is incomplete. That needs to change.”
He also said a print circulation of around 20,000 copies in a borough the size of Bedford is “not, on its own, a complete communication solution”.
Council review
The council says it already uses its own website and digital channels to supplement statutory notices where the law allows, but in many cases, these routes cannot replace print publication.
Cllr Frost said: “To be clear, legal compliance does not remove the responsibility to seek value. We accept that responsibility.
“We also accept that a system which relies heavily on a single printed outlet in a local market does not create strong competitive tension. That inevitably impacts price.”
He said the council would continue to operate within the law, but would tighten its approach.
That will include reviewing public notice spending in detail, requesting and retaining circulation and reach data where available, benchmarking costs more rigorously against other authorities, expanding supplementary digital publication, and engaging with the Government and MPs on legislative change.
“This is a national issue,” he said, “Councils are spending large sums through a model that has not kept pace with modern communication. Reform is overdue.
“Until then, we will keep pushing for better value within the constraints we are given.”
The Bedford Independent also contacted Bedford Borough Council officers with questions about the FOI response, circulation data and due diligence, but no separate officer response was received before publication.
Calls for reform
Cllr Lucy Bywater, Green councillor for Castle ward, said the spend was “clearly a concern”, especially if notices were not reaching the people they were intended to reach and that “Changing times demand looking at this.”
Cllr Bywater added her agreement that the council should routinely request and retain circulation, readership or reach data before placing public notices.
She also said Bedford Borough Council should lobby central government for reform so that regulated online local news publishers can compete to carry statutory notices.
A spokesperson for Bedford Borough Liberal Democrats also agreed that councils should have more flexibility.
“We support a free and challenging local press in all its forms and believe that councils should be able to issue public notices through a range of sources, physical and digital,” they said.
Mohammad Yasin, Labour MP for Bedford and Kempston, said the figures “understandably raise questions” about how value for money is being assessed.
“Spending £377,000 on public notices since 2022, without clear data on circulation or reach, understandably raises questions about how value for money is being assessed,” he said.
“At a time of financial pressure, councils should be able to demonstrate that this spending is reaching residents effectively. Where that information is not available, it becomes more difficult to show the best return for taxpayers.”
Mr Yasin said the media landscape had “evolved considerably” and said the Government’s review of public notices was a welcome opportunity to consider more effective and additional ways to ensure important public information reaches residents.
He added: “Reform should focus on improving reach, transparency and value for money, while continuing to support trusted local journalism.”
National issue
The Public Interest News Foundation (PINF) said Bedford’s figures reflected a wider issue in local news across the country.
Jonathan Heawood, executive director at PINF, said: “The local news industry has undergone a deep transformation with the rise of online news and the decline of printed papers.
“Last year, more than half of regional dailies, which once sold in the tens of thousands, had a circulation below 5,000 copies.
“While printed notices should remain for the digitally excluded, people are increasingly turning to trusted, online publishers to find information relevant to them, so a much wider audience would be reached by placing notices online, too.”
PINF’s most recent Index also found that the average local, independent news provider attracted 489,268 unique users in 2024, up 40% from 2023.
It said the estimated total value of all public notices nationally is between £46m and £68m, and argued that revenue should be shared more fairly across the local media ecosystem.
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PINF also reiterated that this issue affects local businesses nationwide, potentially stifling their growth.
Councils are not the only bodies required to place statutory notices; licensing applicants, planning applicants, and other organisations are also required to pay for notices in printed newspapers.
Those costs are not shown in the council’s FOI response, but campaigners argue that businesses face the same problems as local authorities: limited choice, print-first rules, and little ability to compare providers on cost and reach.
“Reforming the law to include trusted, accountable and widely-read online local news outlets would mean that far more people see vital information and are able to engage with changes in their community,” said Heawood.
“Revenues would be distributed more fairly, helping sustain a diverse, independent local news sector that is essential to a healthy democracy.”
Government review
A spokesperson for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) said statutory notices remain “vital” for keeping communities informed and should reach “as wide an audience as possible”.
“As part of our Local Media Action Plan, we will be consulting on whether change is needed to better ensure people have access to all types of statutory notices,” they said.
“Communicating statutory notices must reflect how the way people consume news is changing, while also continuing to allow for journalistic scrutiny.”
In background information provided to the Bedford Independent, the DCMS said the review will be led by the department, involve other departments with an interest, and take forward final decisions on alcohol licence notices.
The Government said it is not committing to specific changes at this stage, but recognises calls for greater digitalisation of statutory notice requirements and will publish its planned consultation timetable in the coming weeks.
In Amplify: The Local Media Action Plan, the Government said any review should help ensure value for money, foster innovation in the local media ecosystem, and avoid unfairly disadvantaging public-interest local news outlets, whether they operate in print, online or both.
Digital notices
There has already been one major attempt to make public notices easier to find online.
The News Media Association (NMA) launched its Public Notice Portal in 2023 with funding from the Google News Initiative, bringing together statutory notices published by local newspaper publishers and allowing users to search by location.
It is owned and operated by the NMA, whose members include nearly 900 local and regional news titles reaching 42 million people each month.
However, it does not solve the underlying competition issue.
The portal carries notices already published through local newspaper publishers, meaning they are duplicates of notices that have first had to be placed in print at significant cost to councils, businesses or applicants.
The Press Gazette reported at the time of its launch that the portal only aggregates notices published by NMA member publishers and is not a comprehensive listing of all public notices.
The Bedford Independent contacted representatives of Iconic Media Group several times seeking answers to questions about public notices, circulation, costs, and their notices on the NMA portal, but no support was offered to help us find those answers for our readers.
