Council apologises after free beer offer

A possible vote-winning policy of asking pubs in Northamptonshire to provide free beer one day a year has been scrapped only minutes after being announced. An email was accidentally sent out to residents by staff at Northamptonshire County Council who were taking part in a training session. The message asked people if they would support plans for a 'free beer day'.

But when red-faced workers realised the joke email had accidentally been sent out, it was immediately retracted. A spokesman for the authority said: "An email was accidentally sent to those residents who have signed up to the council's email alert system for consultations.



"The mishap came about as a result of a staff training session in the use of the online consultation applications, and as soon as we became aware of it, we sent an email apologising for the confusion." It is not believed the email contained any details about how 'free beer day' would have worked, and those who clicked on the email reported that they only received an error message.

The council's spokesman added: "The email directed people to the website. It's an alert system to let people know when new consultations are added, but they don't include any details other than the title of the consultation. Anyone who clicked on the link, got an error message because clearly the page didn't exist in reality."