LIVERPOOL’S council leader Joe Anderson yesterday instructed officials to restore access to the Daily Post’s political blog, Dale Street Blues.

Cllr Joe Anderson acted after access from council computers to City Editor David Bartlett’s Dale Street Blues site was blocked.

The block was noticed by Liberal Democrat opposition leader Paula Keaveney’s staff, who were attempting to use the blog for research.

She said: “If you are trying to encourage people not to read something, the best way is not to draw attention to it by banning it.”

Council workers were greeted with a message warning them that accessing the blog was a potential violation of the local authority’s internet policy.

Yesterday, Liverpool Council insisted the block was imposed in error.

A spokesman said: “It appears that when the system was rebooted following the power failure a few weeks ago, some files were copied over from Liverpool Direct Limited (LDL).

“This resulted in the blog being blocked. This situation has now been rectified.”

LDL, the council’s IT and call centre joint venture with BT, banned its workers from accessing the blog in 2009 on its own system.

It came after Mr Bartlett poked fun at the company’s “LDL is a great place to work initiative”, which had involved handing out gizmos and mouse mats.

Before access to Dale Street Blues was restored yesterday, Cllr Anderson told the Daily Post he would be instructing officials to remove the block.