Here's two more recent front page non-stories, which were published, after receiving the information from someone at H.B.C.
£2m bid to bring back 'heritage look' to Accrington town centre street | Accrington Observer - menmedia.co.uk
£2.5m plan to restore Accrington Arcade | Accrington Observer - menmedia.co.uk
When you wade through all the guff, basically a bid has been put in for Lottery funding, which means that unless the bid is successful, the schemes are just pie in the sky.
If you're going to use the press to try and create positive public relation stories, from which you hope to gain politically, you must also be prepared that they'll sometimes use you for their own ends. Which is to sell papers.
It's risky.
Especially for an amateur.
You sometimes end up with egg on your face.
Or in this case, dog crap.