Mark Pack

Shropshire Council has admitted it has only ever approved one official request for someone to link to its website, but is insisting that it is right to demand people apply to the council for permission before linking to its website.

As I highlighted last month, the Shropshire Council website has a set of terms and conditions says that people must contact the council with details, including their home address, to request permission before they link to the website. However, although there are numerous links to the Shorpshire Council website around the internet (such as this list from Google) the Council says it has only approved one link and has never taken action against any of the unauthorised links.

Yet when BBC Radio Shropshire picked up on the story, the Council insisted they cannot let just anyone link to their site.

So in summary: Shropshire Council staff have put time and effort into coming up with website terms and conditions that make a fruitless attempt to control what people do on the internet, the council knows people don’t follow its rules but also doesn’t try to enforce them – and still insisted the rules are needed.

More promisingly, a council officer told me in an email that, “This policy is under currently under review”.