THE Times backs THIS Times

Epsom and Ewell Times’ purpose gets a leading endorsement. Today’s Times newspaper (established 1785) has published a leading article headed “The demise of regional news reporting is bad for democracy and bad for communities”. The article states: “Local news is the lifeblood of local democracy and indeed of democracy itself. If people cannot have confidence that those in local councils, courts and public services whose actions impinge directly on their everyday life are being scrutinised and properly held to account, why should they trust those remote figures who wield power in the centre? A society without rigorous local news is a society vulnerable to corruption, disenchantment, isolation and conspiracy theories….”