COUNCIL’S AWARD BASH BILL OF £1200
Trip to St Andrews for broadband prize
Stirling Council made no apologies this week for sending a party of seven to a pick up a prize at an awards bash in St Andrews – at a cost to council taxpayers of £1200.
Council Leader Scott Farmer, Councillor Chris Kane and chief executive Carol Beattie, plus other four officers, were at the five-star Fairmont Hotel to receive the accolade for the authority’s rural broadband programme.
It was one of a number of honours handed out on October 1 0 at Convention of Local Authorities Excellence awards which took place during CoSLA’s two-day conference at St Andrews.
Yesterday (Thursday) the council confirmed that the two councillors and the chief executive were driven in the civic car to the 211-room clifftop hotel overlooking the North Sea, for the conference and awards night. Their driver wasn’t provided with overnight accommodation.
The councillors and chief executive were joined by four council officials involved in the council roll-out of rural broadband. They attended the awards dinner and returned home afterwards in a private car.
A council spokesman told the Observer they had received
free invites to attend the awards ceremony adding:“These tickets were given to the team who have helped deliver £300,000 worth of transformational investment in broadband infrastructure in some of our most out-lying communities.
“Their award-winning specific and tailored intervention has helped connect communities across Stirling and their efforts were rightly recognised again on the night when the team were awarded the Scottish Government’s delivering excellence accolade for 2019.
“This national recognition was followed up by further praise from the Independent Networks Co-operative Association, who gave Stirling Council a gold award for having the biggest rural impact in the UK with its broadband work.”
And the spokesperson added:“We make no apologies for the council’s leadership and key officers attending this once-a-year event which not only recognises outstanding performance in the public sector but provides a unique networking opportunity for political leaders across the local government sector in Scotland.”
The cost for attending the two-day conference and awards night was £399 plus VAT (£478.80). Conference members discussed the future of local government following 20 years of devolution.
Leader of the council’s Scottish Conservative Group, Councillor Neil Benny, said:“There is absolutely no justification for councillors to muscle in on award ceremonies like these. However the council leader has previous form on this kind of thing and is clearly content to do so using taxpayers’money to pay for it.”
In November, 2017, the council spent more than £1500 sending a councillor and two top officials to an awards bash in London.
The authority was shortlisted in the‘best employee health and wellbeing strategy’ category of the Engage Awards .
Prizes were handed over at a glittering ceremony on November 13 at the capital’s Westminster Bridge Park Plaza Hotel which has more than 1000 rooms, suites and penthouses and is a five-minute walk from the London Eye.
Joining Stirling Council Leader Scott Farmer at the event were the authority’s human resources chief officer Kristine Johnson and team leader Pamela Forsyth.
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