Labour group leader, Patrick Davies, has condemned the latest edition of Winchester City Council's newspaper, as "Lib-Dem propaganda on the rates".

He said the timing of Insight, which looks at how the council performs against government indicators, was "completely inappropriate" coming just weeks before an election on May 2nd.

He was joined by Tory opposition leader, Freddie Allgood, in demanding that their pictures and names were taken off the front page article.

What was intended to be a joint message on the best value review ended up being signed only by council leader, Rodney Sabine.

The council argues it was legally obliged to get a report on best value to all 43,500 households in the district by March 31st.

But Mr Davies said: "It is Liberal-Democrat propaganda on the rates. I approve of best value but this document has gone way beyond that. The whole document should have been pulled. It is a scandalous waste of council taxpayers money."

Conservative group leader, Freddie Allgood, said: "My bone of contention was that they were putting out a leaflet just weeks before the election telling people what a wonderful council it is. I thought that was insensitive.

"It was almost propaganda for the ruling party as it concentrates on the good things and glosses over the bad."

Mr Allgood said the best value review should have been sent out earlier-in January or February.

The council has also come under fire for an item urging local people to stand as councillors when nominations closed last Friday. That gave would-be councillors just days to act.

Mr Allgood said: "It is far too late. You have to give people time to think about standing and getting themselves nominated."

But council leader, Rodney Sabine, defended the special edition of Insight.

He said: "How is conforming to a Labour government requirement propaganda? We have given the information that the government tells us we have to give."

He added: "What is wrong with telling people the council is doing a good job. It is not about Lib-Dems."

He said that when the opposition leaders decided they did not want their pictures on the front page, his was also pulled to avoid accusations of political bias and he signed the article as councillor rather than Lib-Dem leader.

As regards the timing, he said the council needed to provide information on the forthcoming election and the decision was made to combine that with the best value report.

"Two big lumps of information had to be given to the public and it made sense to us to do it in one publication as cheaply as possible."

He said that, in an "ideal world", the item on standing as a councillor would have been published earlier-but it was still useful.

"It is still valuable information and if people don't stand this year they might next time."