A COUNCILLOR has called on colleagues to come clean on links to a construction giant which had a major contract with a local authority rewritten, costing the public purse tens of millions of pounds.
Alan Beveridge, a former SNP member who now sits as an independent in North Lanarkshire, called for “full disclosure” from local politicians who have family members who have found work with Mears or enjoyed hospitality from its executives.
His call comes after the council rewrote its contract with Mears Scotland to repair council homes in a move that cost at least £25m to the public purse.
Mr Beveridge, a former police officer who left the National Party earlier this year, said: “The time has come for every elected representative in North Lanarkshire to rescue the reputation of the council.
“This can only be achieved through the full disclosure of all advantages provided to them or to their families by Mears Scotland.”
The leader of North Lanarkshire Council, Labour’s Jim McCabe, has admitted he is a friend of the managing director of Mears Scotland, Willie Docherty, the husband of Glasgow’s Lord Provost, Sadie Docherty.
Mr McCabe believes his administration was right to rewrite its deal with Mears Scotland, a joint venture with the private concern Mears in which it has a minority stake. Retendering, he has argued, would have left the council with a real risk of both high costs and poor service to its tenants.
However, Mr McCabe’s decision not to formally declare his friendship with both Mr Docherty and Mears executive Steve Kelly, is now the subject of two formal complaints to the Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life. One is from Alan O’Brien, a former SNP councillor. Another is from a serving SNP councillor, Julie McAnulty. Mr McCabe has always denied any wrongdoing.
Similar calls for councillors to declare if they have children or grandchildren working for Mears Scotland were raised at a closed meeting of North Lanarkshire’s Labour Group last week, The Herald understands.
Some councillors have declared hospitality with Mears Scotland on their official registers of interest. These include Mr McCabe.
Council sources stress there are no hard and fast rules on what non-financial interests need to be put on the register or declared ahead of council or party meetings discussing Mears or its contract.
A spokesman for North Lanarkshire Council said: “The Councillors’ Code of Conduct is clear that it is for individual members alone to determine whether they have an interest in a matter to be decided and whether that interest requires to be declared.”
David Miles, chief executive of Mears Scotlands parent company Mears, said: “We do not and have never employed people because of their connections – in fact we actively seek to employ people who can face challenges getting into the workforce.
“As a limited company all of Mears Scotland accounts are published and open to interrogation. We do not have an extensive programme of corporate hospitality.”
The company said it preferred to raise its profile by investing in local communities rather than providing hospitality.
Mr Beveridge also said the SNP had been “conspicuous in their silence” on the Mears contract.
Opposition leader David Stocks denied this. He said: “The SNP group has nothing to hide. We are concerned with this contract but we are also concerned about the jobs of 600 workers and apprentices at Mears.”
Labour is divided over the contract. Tommy Morgan, a veteran councillor, is suing the party after being sacked from his post as internal watchdog after raising concerns over Mears.
Mr McCabe’s allies insist his dismissal was for using “industrial language”, not questioning the leadership.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel