BACKLASH AFTER MINI-BUS SALE
ANGUS councillor Colin Brown has accused opposition councillors of "petty politicking" after a row involving the purchase of a second-hand local authority mini-bus threatened to run local authority cordiality off the road.
The Angus administration was accused of bringing the council into disrepute with the sale of the redundant mini-bus at a meeting of the corporate services committee last week.
Standard procedure for disposing of council fleet vehicles is to sell them at public auction.
However, last week's meeting heard an offer for 3,900 - the fleet manager's estimate of what the bus might realise at auction - for the aged mini-bus had been accepted from Forfar Farmington Football Club, made through councillor Brown, the club's chairman.
This sparked outrage from opposition councillors who were angry they had not been consulted on the decision and accused the Alliance of a serious code of conduct breach with a deal that could be construed as preferential treatment to one of their own.
SNP group leader Councillor Helen Oswald pointed out that not only was Mr Brown a councillor but he was vice-convener of neighbourhood services, to which the request for the bus had been made.
She added the way in which the sale had been conducted was breaking all the regulations on the openness and transparency with which council business was supposed to be done.
Opposition members were not happy the sale had been considered at council officer level, preferring a reserve price to be set for auction. Only after that should the sale to the football club have been considered.
Opposition members added they would have preferred the report had been brought before them before the bus was sold.
Following the meeting, Councillor Brown was swift in his defence with a statement which accused the opposition of double standards.
As chair of the football club and an elected member, he had sought advice from the local authority prior to the sale of the bus "as to how we may pursue such a course of action without compromising the integrity of either the council or myself as elected member."
He hit back at critics of the proposed sale of the council mini-bus to a community group, describing it as another example of petty politicking by the SNP at a time when the council should be working together to face the future – not trying to grandstand to make a headline.
He pointed to the same SNP group's proposal to sell a Park Home to the community in Letham for 1 as an example of real double standards being applied for the purpose of point scoring.
He said, "SNP Councillors wanted to disrupt the sale of a unit to ensure a Letham community group got first offer at a knock down price. When it was pointed out that market value needed to be achieved they amended that to ensure the group were offered the unit at that value. I and the convener supported them, we believe in supporting community groups. In fact many groups have already made direct application and been sold a unit without them going to auction, all agreed by committee and the SNP.
"Now, when a community group I am part of seeks similar consideration it seems it's not good enough.
"We offered to buy the bus at market value from our own hard-earned resources at no cost to the council.
"We got a bus we know has high mileage but is in good condition at a fair price, the council gets its money without a seller's fee and everybody is a winner. The SNP's idea of putting it to auction then withdrawing it if it didn't make enough to then sell on to us at a higher price really shows their true commitment to working with communities.
"Forfar Farmington is dedicated to making life better for the whole community. We are proud of that and will continue to work with all our kids immaterial of any political games being played by the opposition."
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Weather for Forfar
Thursday 09 February 2012
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