Plagiarism, or copying other people’s work and claiming it as your own, has hit the Sutton district by-election!

Yesterday I received a copy of the Conservative candidate’s election leaflet and read a story on the Ouse Washes Landscape Partnership Scheme. I thought the words seemed a little familiar, and I was right, the story has been lifted word for word from the November 2013 Monthly Council Update on the Parish Council website. If you have the leaflet go to http://www.sutton-pc.co.uk/Monthly-Council-Update.aspx and check the accuracy yourself.

Parish Council websites are of course good sources of information if you want to learn about the local issues affecting a village you may not be familiar with and it is good to see that the Conservative candidate has read the Sutton Parish Council website, but is it really appropriate to copy a news item word for word without attribution?

And if you do want to know more about the Ouse Washes Landscape Partnership Scheme then a good starting point is the blog post that Lorna Dupre wrote last June, click here for details.