THE MP for Colchester has branded a council “disgraceful” for allocating £50,000 of tax payers’ cash to its own newspaper.

In a furious rant from his Twitter account, Will Quince said The Centurion, due to be delivered to around 80,000 Colchester residents this week, was unjust when the council had just announced it is “at breaking point over funding”.

Mr Quince added: "It’s desperate self-promotion ahead of elections which you all know are going to be tough for the coalition and could see you lose control.

"Why haven’t you done this over the past 11 years? Why is keeping residents informed in this way suddenly a priority? "Shameless.”

Speaking to the Gazette yesterday, Conservative Mr Quince added: “I cannot listen to Spotify without hearing adverts for Colchester Council’s Better Town Centre scheme and their adverts are all over bus stops.

“They haven’t thought this necessary for the last ten years, why do they think it is necessary now, ahead of some elections they are going to lose. There should be more doing, less talking."

READ MORE: Council boss: 'Austerity has pushed us to breaking point'

Lyn Barton, a Liberal Democrat councillor for Colchester, waded into the Twitter row by reminding Mr Quince he also has a newsletter.

But he defended it as it is not funded by the tax payer.

Colchester Green Party member Mark Goacher also Tweeted: “I can’t in all honesty support them on this one. I know of other boroughs where they do this and it ends up as party political advertising for the ruling party/parties in disguise.”

But Colchester Council said while it was correct it had set aside £50,000 for the cost of two editions of the newspaper, the actual costs were around £16-17,000 for each edition.

A spokesman added it also has to follow strict Government guidelines that such publications should only be published up to four times a year, include material directly related to local services and should not be in direct competition to local press.

Colchester Council’s Liberal Democrat leader Mark Cory, who has spearheaded The Centurion'a publication, added: “The MP sends out newsletters and newspapers informing the people of what he is doing, the council is doing the same thing.

“It is not self-promotion because there are no pictures of politicians in there, there are no quotes, there are no comments from us.

“It is as straight as possible, giving people non-political information about the council.

"He has made these comments without even seeing it, it is simply a political attack.”

Council-run services are promoted but there no advertisements from private companies.