The Government today threw a lifeline to struggling local newspapers by rejecting proposals to relax rules which state that planning applications must be advertised in the local media.

The Newspaper Society had warned that local newspapers could lose up to £15m a year in advertising revenue if proposals to ease the rules on publication of public notices put forward last year were given the go ahead.

At the time the proposals were presented the Newspaper Society’s communications director Lynne Anderson said: “Not only would councils be encouraged to rely on cheaper but less effective information channels, undermining the public’s right to know, such a move would further damage the local media industry, cutting off an important revenue stream at a critical time when it is tackling the worst commercial conditions in memory.