Does Caesar's wife shop at Sainsbury's?
Cornwall Council's planners meet tomorrow to consider what sort of shopping experience is appropriate for Wadebridge. The options include an even bigger Tesco, a Morrisons on the football field and/or Sainsbury's on council-owned land at Higher Trenant. The Higher Trenant site is surplus to council requirements but its value increases dramatically if it gets planning permission for a supermarket.
The planners, of course, will be advised to banish from their minds any thought of the financial gain to the council should they be minded to approve the Sainsbury's application (and the official recommendation is that they should approve the Sainsbury's bid.) A conflict of interest? Surely councillors are above such things. Of course they are. The fact that Cornwall Council will not be able to afford its Grand Design for refurbishing County Hall at Truro, should the Sainsbury's application fail, will not enter their heads.
I am nevertheless curious as to why members of the council should have been offered the chance to take part in a discount-voucher shopping scheme which allows them to "save 5% off their weekly shopping bills" when they visit either Asda or Sainsburys. The scheme is promoted by a company called Motivano and has been offered to all council staff.
Nothing wrong with offering such corporate deals to staff - large employers, including the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳, do it all the time. But should this include elected members, who are there to decide controversial issues of policy? Particularly if they have to weigh the merits of one supermarket against another?
I'm sure there is a perfectly straightforward explanation, and have asked Cornwall Council what advice (if any) councillors have been given to avoid any impression of conflicted interests.
I'm ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio Devon’s Graham Smith, blogging on news, views and some fresh insights into West Country life, particularly the way government works locally and nationally.
Comment number 1.
At 14th Oct 2010, Peter Tregantle wrote:"…The planners, of course, will be advised to banish from their minds any thought of the financial gain to the council…"
I don’t see why as for them getting 5% discount this is a direct bribe and should be seen as such, whoever approved this should hang their heads in utter shame. Good bit of investigation
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Comment number 2.
At 14th Oct 2010, Andrew Jacks wrote:-Nothing wrong with offering such corporate deals to staff - large employers, including the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳-
There is a big difference between discounts at a sports clubs and a backhander, nobody in the council should receive these discounts, given the only reason these are offered is as a legal inducement, no different from a brown envelope
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Comment number 3.
At 14th Oct 2010, rickracoon wrote:So Cllrs are held in such high regard thats Sainsburys think its worth offering them a 5% discount voucher,not 10 or 20%,tells you all you need to know about how highly valued they are.
I look forward to each and every Cllr issueing a statement that they will not take advantage of this offer, and all Coucil officers in the planning department(at the very least) doing the same.
Perhaps Sainsburys or the agent could also issue a statement on why this offer was made,who else it has been made to and why it has been offered?
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Comment number 4.
At 15th Oct 2010, Andrew Jacks wrote:Graham do Cllrs have to declare interests the same as MPs?
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Comment number 5.
At 15th Oct 2010, Graham Smith wrote:Local councillors do indeed have to declare interests and abide by a code of conduct. They are covered by Standards for England, whose motto is "We believe in principled local politics. Our mission is to champion and promote high standards of conduct amongst our local politicians."
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