"The National Association of Local Councils' (NALC) supports the ideas developed by Rory Stewart MP... that there is a disconnect between the public and politics."
That statement appears on the association's website. So what does the NALC, which represents some 9,000 community, parish and town councils in England, think should be done to bring the public and politicians together?
It asks people to click through to more information, which turns out to be the latest edition of a guide for parish and town councils.
In that guide - keep in mind the "disconnect" - it offers advice that can be summed up in a sentence: don't talk to journalists. They may be representatives of the public. They may be the eyes and ears of the public. But avoid them and frustrate at all costs.
Here are three specific injunctions included in its so-called media policy:
*All journalists must contact the council clerk and may not contact councillors directly.
*Any contact by councillors with journalists requires the council's prior written consent.
*Councillors cannot, in their official capacity, provide verbal or written statements to the media without the council's written consent.
Can the NALC be serious? Of course, it is. Its members may lament the disconnect, but they are reinforcing it with this kind of anti-media sentiment.
According to Rowena Mason in The Guardian the guide is regarded as "Stalinist" by the communities secretary Eric Pickles, who believes it will have a "chilling effect on public life".
He wants the "completely inappropriate" advice withdrawn. Although it isn't compulsory, some local authorities have begun adopting it into their constitutions.
Pickles said: "Councillors must be able to challenge waste and inefficiency, and should not have to get permission from state officials to speak to the press.
"I am making clear its contents are utterly opposed by the government and it should be withdrawn immediately. We should be championing the independent free press, not trying to suppress it."
Pickles is still in dispute with some councils over their continuing publication of newspapers in defiance of the law.
