Nottingham City Council has made the unprecedented step of threatening a critical local blogger via its solicitors. In a letter sent to the author of the Nottingham City Council LOLs (NCCLOLs) blog, solicitor Jon Ludford-Thomas states that the blog "contains personal, derogatory comments regarding a number of [the City Council's] councillors and employees that could cause distress to those individuals." It requests that the author "remove these personal, derogatory comments from ncclols and refrain from posting similar such comments on ncclols or elsewhere on the internet."

The NCCLOLs blog describes itself as a resource for those who "want to know what [their] favourite local council ... gets up to?" and uses minutes of meetings and Freedom of Information requests to scrutinise what goes on in the Council chamber and beyond. In the past it has exposed some of the serious failings of Nottingham City Homes and the Council's housing benefit service.

Andy, author of NCCLOLs, said "It's not quite clear what legal basis NCC has for telling the blog not to write such things."

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Links: Nottingham City Council LOLs | Nottingham City Council