Rocking all over Hammersmith?

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'Worst ever' pop video uses Quo to promote Council budget

Hammersmith and Fulham Council has broadcast its latest council tax news on popular video-sharing website You Tube.

To the strains of 'Down, Down', originally sung by vintage rockers Status Quo, but covered in this instance by Harry Hammersmith & the Flyovers, the 60 second video highlights cuts in council tax for the borough. It has already been described as the worst ever You Tube pop video but the Council say it was deliberately cheesy and that it has already reached far more people than a newspaper article would.

Hammersmith and Fulham Council has announced proposals for a three per cent council tax cut for a second year in a row and claims to be the first local authority in Britain to engage residents on its budget using You Tube.

Council Leader Stephen Greenhalgh said: "Too many families are being crippled by sky high bills and we want them to come down, down. That's why we posted our tax cutting message on You Tube. We want to engage with as many people as possible on our budget plans for 2008/9 - particularly how you can lower tax bills and improve service.

"Using You Tube is about reaching a new audience, an audience that is traditionally hard to reach. This is yet another example of us thinking innovatively at ways of communicating with residents at next to nothing cost.

"This is an authority that has slashed the communications budget by £600,000. We are the only authority in London to be spending less on communications that we did ten years ago."

The band only charged expenses while council staff worked in their free time at weekends. This meant the cost of producing the video was just £500.

The video touts the proposed three per cent tax cut which, if approved at a council meeting at the end of February, will mean that Hammersmith and Fulham residents have had two three per cent cuts in a row.

To watch, go to http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr0C3lymHJc

Emma Midgley

February 11, 2008