Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
No wrongdoing says council leader Logue
Logue responds to councillor’s criticisms on conduct
Airdrie councillor Jim Logue insists there have been no issues with his conduct or that of North Lanarkshire Leisure after a fellow councillor questioned his directorship of two subsidiary companies of the arm’s-length external organisation (ALEO).
The council leader was last week heavily criticised by independent councillor Sam Love, a Labour convener until March this year, who believes he should have made a specific official declaration of the existence of, and his involvement in, No Limits Leisure and ECSA UK.
Both were established in 2011, respectively, to explore the possibility of providing leisure services in other council areas as an income-generation stream; and for North Lanarkshire’s period as a “European capital of sport” in the year of hosting the International Children’s Games.
Councillor Logue responded by saying that both were set up for specific purposes to comply with the overarching leisure trust’s constitution; and noted that, having declared his unpaid directorship of North Lanarkshire Leisure in the register of interests, he was not required to declare each individual subsidiary under the councillors’ code of conduct and had legal advice to that effect.
He has been one of the directors of North Lanarkshire Leisure since the organisation was set up a decade ago to run council facilities such as its sports centres and swimming pools.
As a charitable trust, it is eligible for rates relief and savings not available to the council. It also has a subsidiary trading community interest company, as required to comply with charities legislation.
Councillor Logue told the Advertiser: “No Limits Leisure was set up when the aspiration of the board was to allow us to expand into other areas; we made contact with other authorities but apart from one, none was receptive to the idea.
“It was there to create the flexibility to expand, but in the absence of a willingness from other authorities, it’s never traded.
“Not one penny was invested in No Limits Leisure, not one penny was generated and not one penny was spent, and therefore it just withered on the vine.”
Of now-dissolved ECSA, he continued: “Part of the requirement of becoming a city of sport was that you had to set up a company, so that you could receive European funding and attract sponsorship – it was a requirement.
“It’s finished – it had a few thousand pounds, I think £2600, left in it when it was dissolved and that money was given to a sporting charity.
“Small- minded individuals see this as part of a culture of secrecy – there’s nothing secret or subterfuge about it. If the legal advisers had said, ‘you need to declare an interest’, that would have been declared.”
Asked about the wider operation and decision-making of ALEOs – including Culture NL which operates facilities such as libraries and community centres – outside the control of councillors, he said: “I’ve heard that and some of my own members articulate it; and the point I made to them is the decision to set up any ALEO was financially driven.
“If we want to do away with North Lanarkshire Leisure and Culture NL and bring them back into the council, we’ve got to pay non- domestic rates on the buildings and VAT on some of the services that the Trust don’t pay; and our finance department reckon that would add about £6 million.”
He added that ALEOs “cannot be dictated to by the council, so you’ve got to place a degree of trust – if you don’t allow them the power to make decisions then it wouldn’t be a Trust and the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator have the power to strip charitable status immediately.
“There have to be more independent directors than council-appointed ones. If I was an independent director and six councillors came in and said, ‘this was discussed in council and this is our view’, I’d say, ‘if you’ve already made up your mind, there’s no point in independent directors being here.’”