I HONESTLY think today that leaders and senior officials at Eastbourne Borough Council should hang their heads in shame.

Yesterday lunchtime - just before deadline - a press release arrived for me from the Cobb PR company which the borough council pays very good money to handle its media affairs.

The details of that contract - just renewed - are for another day. What is important to understand here and now is that EBC has a duty to be open and honest with us taxpayers.

And David Tutt, leader of our council, if you approved this press release then you owe an apology to the people of Eastbourne.

We deserve to be told in an open and honest way - yes those same two key words - what the council is doing and how it is spending our money.

Back to the press release and it is headlined 'Councils’ shared services will save £2.79m a year.'

It is nothing more than PR spin about how Eastbourne Borough Council and Lewes District Council will be working together. Nothing wrong with partnership and we keep getting told the joining up is great, and indeed let's hope that is the case.

Read this quote from Councillor Andy Smith, Leader of Lewes District Council, who said: 'This programme allows us to provide greater value for money for residents while delivering services in an effective, efficient and customer-centric way.

'We have synergies with Eastbourne Borough Council and it makes absolute sense for us to build upon our existing sharing arrangements, which are proving so successful. This will create two stronger councils that can operate more strategically within the region while retaining the sovereignty of each.'

All sounding very positive so far, and based on the fact that most people don't read the full content of a story, people may well move on thinking everything is rosy in the garden.

It goes on: 'Under the Joint Transformation Programme, both councils will retain their own identity and powers, meaning that there will still be two separate sets of elected councillors setting the priorities for their areas, but there will be full integration of management, services and ICT (information and communications technology).

'This initiative builds on collaborative arrangements between the two councils that have been working together to share resources and expertise since 2012, with legal, printing and HR services being shared since 2015.'

Oh, hang on a minute, then we get to the penultimate sentence, and in basic journalism the most important part of the story would go at the top. The last sentence but one should be for something pretty unimportant.

Hang on, look what that sentence says: 'The new working arrangements will see both councils consulting with staff over the reduction of up to 79 full-time posts.'

Buried at the bottom. Up to 79 full time job losses.

To try to hide that, and bury it so low down, is simply wrong. It is treating the people of Eastbourne - and indeed the Lewes district - with contempt.

We expect openness and we expect honesty. This is an example of neither, and if the taxpayer is paying Cobb PR to pump out council material, then it should not be done in such a shocking way as this.

And one last thought which the council and PR staff would do well to take heed of.

What I dislike most is the lack of humanity shown.

These are people. Losing their jobs. They shouldn't be treated as a footnote on a press release.

They should be given respect.

They should be thanked for their work.

This doesn't do that. And the council should be ashamed of the way they are airbrushing these people into history.