* Warning: this story is date-sensitive

THE HACKNEY TODAY has finally closed. Mayor Jules Pipe publicly refuses to concede defeat in his long struggle with Eric Pickles.

But it’s all over.

Pipe has privately written to the Communities Secretary to say that Hackney residents will now be deprived of “the best conduit of news from a local authority to its residents”.

He told Loving Dalston that the cost of producing, printing, publishing and distributing the fortnightly freesheet was nothing like the millions of pounds the Conservatives had claimed it was.

He added: “The people of Hackney will, I am sure, punish the Tories at the general election for such penny-pinching and vindictive cuts.

“The idea that any money saved could have gone into the housing budget is absurd: we shall be boosting the council website, and that could eventually cost more.”

The news that the council’s huge media team will concentrate on the online version is reassuring for Hackneyites who would have missed their regular pictures of the Mayor.

As for the possibility of a comment section on the site, press officer Lise-Ann Morelies said it was unlikely because “the great majority of emails and post that came to the newspaper were in praise of council policies, so a letters column would have been boring”.

And things are never boring at Hackney council.

The Hackney Toady datelined 1 April 2015 will be the last.

David Altheer 010415

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