Outrage at Durham Council catering contract

Jun 14 2009 by Neil McKay, Sunday Sun

Ironically, Bishop Tom’s sermon had warned council chiefs: “We urgently need to rebuild trust at every level of community.”

Independent County Councillor John Shuttleworth said: “It is a kick in the teeth for the council’s hard-working staff.

“They were overlooked and then had to see this contract awarded to the husband of a councillor who lives nine miles away in Crook, and who had to transport the buffet to Durham.

“Such a decision makes a mockery of the new authority’s claim to be open and transparent.”

But Mrs Jopling, who lives with her husband in Howden-le-Wear, near Crook, insists she did nothing wrong.

She said: “I know how it looks and it may look bad, but we were invited to tender by the chairman of the council, Brian Myers, because the council’s own catering department’s bid was too high.

“The money for the buffet came out of the chairman’s own budget and he has to watch what he spends. I am not prepared to say how much my husband’s company charged but I was told afterwards that it was a third less than a bid by the council’s arms length catering company, Service Direct.

“I was reluctant to take this job on. It was the first one we have done for the council and I know what people think.

“But we were asked by the chairman to submit a bid and that is what we did.”

A spokeswoman for Durham County Council said: “In line with the County Council’s contract procedure rules, three quotations for the provision of the buffet were obtained and the contract awarded to the lowest quotation.”